May 9 1983

We are all waiting for many more apologizes for many things.........

The infallible Pope John Paul II retracts the Catholic Church's condemnation of astronomer Galileo Galilei, issued in 1633 by the infallible Pope Urban VIII. The Church had convicted the scientist of heresy, sentenced him to house arrest, and forced him to recant central scientific truths. In the end, this error only took 350 years to correct.

May 9 1950

Another wacky pastime sprouts up.............

L Ron Hubbard publishes the first edition of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. This follows on the heels of a feature article in the pulp sci-fi magazine Astounding Science Fiction. A book review in the The New Republic describes the work as "a bold and immodest mixture of complete nonsense and perfectly reasonable common sense, taken from long-acknowledged findings and disguised and distorted by a crazy, newly invented terminology." The subsequent movement goes on to become one of the scariest, most powerful pseudo-religious cults in modern history.

May 8 1991

Oh Bill.......how could you........

In a room at Little Rock's Excelsior Hotel, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton exposes his penis to state employee Paula Jones and propositions her to perform fellatio. In her civil deposition, Jones will later claim to have witnessed certain "distinguishing characteristics" of the governor's genitalia, the precise nature of which soon becomes the subject of much speculation. For her trouble, Jones eventually receives an out-of-court settlement for $850,000 and a nude pictorial in Penthouse magazine.

May 8 1998

Keeping up with the times..........


Former Senator and onetime Presidential candidate Bob Dole tells television interviewer Larry King that he participated in the Viagra impotence drug trials, and thoroughly enjoyed himself in the process. Dole's name soon becomes synonymous with erectile dysfunction.

May 10 1924

I think the Bushies have equalled if not surpassed even Hoovers disaster.......

In perhaps the single worst mistake in the history of crime fighting, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone selects J. Edgar Hoover to head the Bureau of Investigation, later known as the FBI. He will remain at the post until his death 48 years later.

May 10 1933

Who else can we thibnk of that wants to burn books.............?

Joseph Göbbels presides over a public book burning in Berlin, which destroys more than 20,000 volumes. The collection includes books by Einstein and Freud. During the bibliocaust, Goebbels declares: "We have directed our dealings against the un-German spirit; consign everything un-German to the fire."


May 10 1994


Oh yeah, that pesky thing the Constitution...........

300 active-duty Marines stationed at Twenty-Nine Palms receive a 46-question, multiple-choice survey.

Given a hypothetical situation, more than a quarter of respondents indicate their willingness to "fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S. government." On the positive side, almost two-thirds recognize that the order would be patently unconstitutional.

May 11 1310

54 members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics. Established during the Crusades to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, this military order came into increasing conflict with Rome until Clement V officially dissolves it at the Council of Vienna in 1312.

May 11 1894

Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Co. in Illinois went on strike. The job action spread and crippled railroad service nationwide before the federal government intervened to end the strike in July.


May 11 1981

Jamaican music legend and U.N. Peace Medal recipient Bob Marley dies of brain cancer in a Miami hospital at the age of 36. Marley had quietly begun a course of radiation therapy at Sloan-Kettering a few months prior, but abandoned it just two days later after word leaked out.

May 12 1797

Following Napoleon's conquest of Venice, Ludovico Manin reluctantly steps down as its last Doge. Thus ends the Most Serene Republic's 820-year history of national sovereignty.


May 12 1971

Tor Johnson dies of congestive heart failure at the age of 67 in San Fernando, California. The man who once wrestled under the name "The Super Swedish Angel" leaves behind a legacy of B-movie acting roles, most famously as the bald zombie in Ed Wood's masterpiece "Plan 9 from Outer Space."

May 17 1974

During a gun battle with members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the LAPD fires tear gas into their Watts hideout. The canisters ignite a fire which soon consumes the house. Three other SLA members, including kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, watch the events unfold on TV in their motel room down the street from Disneyland.

May 17 1980

A three-day race riot breaks out after an all-white jury acquits four white Miami police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance salesman. The cops had beaten him with their flashlights and billyclubs, and he died in the hospital. 18 fatalities and more than $100 million in property damage are the final result.

May 17 1992

Bandleader, accordion player, and soap bubble aficionado Lawrence Welk dies of pneumonia in his beachfront condo in Santa Monica, California.

May 18 1843

"I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left." -- Joseph Smith, prophet of God and founder of the Mormon church

May 18 1904

In Paris, 12 nations ratify the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade. Another 48 countries and territories follow suit over the next six years. Conspicuously absent from the list of signatories is the United States of America.

May 19 1536

In the first public execution of an English queen, Anne Boleyn is beheaded. In her speech, Boleyn has nothing but good things to say about her husband, Henry VIII: "I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord."

May 19 1890

Nguyen Tat Thanh is born in central Vietnam. After World War I he devotes his life to the Communist cause, adopting a series of pseudonyms along the way. Finally he settles on "The Enlightener," that being the English translation of Ho Chi Minh.

May 19 1928

Saloth Sar, one of the world's most successful mass murderers, is born in French Indochina. He later adopts the name Pol Pot in 1976, a year after the Khmer Rouge seizes control of Cambodia.

June 27 1844

Mormon leader Joseph Smith, along with his brother Hyrum, are shot and killed by a mob while in jail at Carthage, Illinois. According to church legend, after Smith is shot a man raises a knife to decapitate him, but is thwarted by a thunderbolt from heaven.

June 28 1914

During a parade in Sarajevo, Nedjelko Cabrinovic tosses a grenade into the automobile carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife Sofia. But Ferdinand knocks the bomb away with his arm and his driver speeds away from the would-be assassin. A short while later, during the return drive, Gavrilo Princip pulls out an automatic pistol and kills both Ferdinand and his pregnant wife. Five weeks later, the continent of Europe erupts into World War I.

June 29 1989

Under the headline "Homosexual Prostitution Probe Ensnares Official of Bush, Reagan" the Washington Times reports that "a homosexual prostitution ring is under investigation by federal and District authorities and includes among its clients key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, military officers, congressional aides and U.S. and foreign businessmen with close ties to Washington's political elite." The story alleges that homosexual call boys had been given tours of the White House, under the aegis of Republican Craig Spence. Spence's body is later found at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, an apparent suicide.

June 29 1992

Mohammed Boudiaf is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards less than six months after becoming President of Algeria. A former hero in the war of independence, Boudiaf had been chosen by the Islamic Salvation Front to serve as figurehead for their regime. More than 100,000 Algerians will later die in political bloodshed in the following decade.

June 29 2001-- Tap Duncan, a frequent poster of the Randi Rhodes show, is bucked off a horse while starting said horse and is hospitalized with multiple fractures to his left shoulder, which eventually requires replacement of said shoulder. The shoulder is eventually replaced with a titanium prosthetic. This injury sidelines his Cowboy Christmas chances of winning lot's of small dollar checks, and since he was not insured at the time, he will have to wait until he marries someone with insurance to be covered for the surgery, luckily he fell madly in love later on in 2002, and was operated on in 2005, he has since focused solely on team roping. He resides on his ranch, teaching team roping to young people and adopting puppies out of Indiana to save them from euthanasia. He and his wife have 12 horses, 26 chickens, 6 dogs, 4 cats, and 3 Boer goats, they also have 3 boys between them. He was recently quoted that "his life has never been better, but the tequila doesn't hurt."