Today's Buzz: Jan. 18

Posted January 18, 2008, 5:07 am by Growing Bolder


Today is Friday, January 18, 2008. There are 348 days left in the year and there are 291 days until Election Day.

Quick Reads: News Brew
Chess Master Bobby Fischer Dies (CNN.com)
Richard Knerr, Creator of Crazes Like Hula Hoop and Frisbee, Dies (NY Times)
CIA, Pakistan Concur on Bhutto's Killer (LA Times)
President Bush to Lay Out Economic Stimulus Ideas (AP)
Cloning Said To Yield Human Embryos (NY Times)
Romney Gets Testy Over Issue Of Lobbyists In His Campaign (Boston Globe)
Police: Victim Drunk And Taunting Tiger During Attack (Yahoo News)
Directors Deal May End Writers Strike (BusinessWeek)


Today's Celebrity Birthdays:
Ray Dolby, inventor of the Dolby noise reduction system, is 75. Actor Kevin Costner is 53. Singer Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins, is 52. Hockey player Mark Messier is 47. Writer and comedian Dave Attell is 43. Actor Jesse L. Martin ("Law and Order") is 39.

On This Day:
In 1778: James Cook becomes the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands."

In 1886: Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.

In 1896: The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.

In 1916: A 611-gram chondrite type meteorite strikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.

In 1944: The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time, featuring Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.

In 1964: Plans are revealed for New York City's World Trade Center.

In 1983: Thirty years after his death, the International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family. The medals were stripped in 1913 when newspapers reports circulated that Thorpe had played professional baseball. His pay? As little as $2 a game. He tried pleading his case by pointing out that other collegiate athletes played professionally in the summers but unlike Thorpe, they used fake names. His appeal did not help.

In 1990: Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for crack cocaine use and possession in an FBI sting while the mayor was with a former girlfriend at a DC hotel. The incident was caught on surveillance cameras, and Barry famously said, "[The] bitch set me up." Eventually, a mistrial was declared, but the mayor was still forced to step down. However, he immediately began campaigning for a City Council seat.

Thought for the Day:
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
Mark Twain




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