Thursday, November 6, 2008

NOVEMBER 6th

On this date in:

1854 John Philip Sousa, the king of American march music, was born in Washington, D.C.

1861 Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederacy.

1861 James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was born in Ontario, Canada.

1887 Baseball Hall of Famer Walter Johnson was born in Humboldt, Kansas.

1888 Republican Benjamin Harrison was elected president, beating incumbent Grover Cleveland in the Electoral College, even though Cleveland led in the popular vote.

1893 Composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky died in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1900 President William B. McKinley was returned to office, defeating Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

1913 Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested as he led a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1928 Republican Herbert Hoover was elected president over Democrat Alfred E. Smith.

1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower won a second term with a victory against Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson.

1995 Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell announced plans to move the team to Baltimore.

1997 Former President George H.W. Bush opened his presidential library at Texas A&M University.

2001 Billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg was elected New York City mayor.


Article of the day

U.N. condemns apartheid

On this day in 1962, the United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calling on all its members to end economic and military relations with the country.

In effect from 1948 to 1993, apartheid, which comes from the Afrikaans word for "apartness," was government-sanctioned racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against South Africa's non-white majority. Among many injustices, blacks were forced to live in segregated areas and couldn’t enter whites-only neighborhoods unless they had a special pass. Although whites represented only a small fraction of the population, they held the vast majority of the country's land and wealth.

Following the 1960 massacre of unarmed demonstrators at Sharpeville near Johannesburg, South Africa, in which 69 blacks were killed and over 180 were injured, the international movement to end apartheid gained wide support. However, few Western powers or South Africa's other main trading partners favored a full economic or military embargo against the country. Nonetheless, opposition to apartheid within the U.N. grew, and in 1973 a U.N. resolution labeled apartheid a "crime against humanity." In 1974, South Africa was suspended from the General Assembly.

After decades of strikes, sanctions and increasingly violent demonstrations, many apartheid laws were repealed by 1990. Finally, in 1991, under President F.W. de Klerk, the South African government repealed all remaining apartheid laws and committed to writing a new constitution. In 1993, a multi-racial, multi-party transitional government was approved and, the next year, South Africa held its first fully free elections. Political activist Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison along with other anti-apartheid leaders after being convicted of treason, became South Africa's new president.

In 1996, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by the new government, began an investigation into the violence and human rights violations that took place under the apartheid system between 1960 and May 10, 1994 (the day Mandela was sworn in as president). The commission's objective was not to punish people but to heal South Africa by dealing with its past in an open manner. People who committed crimes were allowed to confess and apply for amnesty. Headed by 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the TRC listened to testimony from over 20,000 witnesses from all sides of the issue--victims and their families as well as perpetrators of violence. It released its report in 1998 and condemned all major political organizations—-the apartheid government in addition to anti-apartheid forces such as the African National Congress—-for contributing to the violence. Based on the TRC's recommendations, the government began making reparation payments of approximately $4,000 (U.S.) to individual victims of violence in 2003.

Today Birthdays

Glenn Frey turns 60 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg Rock musician Glenn Frey (The Eagles) turns 60 years old today.


77 Mike Nichols
Director

76 Stonewall Jackson
Country singer

71 Eugene Pitt
Singer (The Jive Five)

70 P.J. Proby
Rock singer

67 Guy Clark
Country singer

62 Sally Field
Actress

59 Rory Block
Blues singer

59 Arturo Sandoval
Jazz trumpeter

53 Maria Shriver
First Lady of California

51 Lori Singer
Actress ("Fame")

48 Lance Kerwin
Actor

45 Paul Brindley
Rock musician (The Sundays)

44 Corey Glover
Rock singer (Living Colour)

42 Peter DeLuise
Actor

40 Kelly Rutherford
Actress ("Gossip Girl," "Melrose Place")

38 Ethan Hawke
Actor

36 Thandie Newton
Actress ("W")

36 Rebecca Romijn
Model, actress ("Ugly Betty")

34 Zoe McLellan
Actress ("Dirty Sexy Money")

30 Nicole Dubuc
Actress

21 Ana Ivanovic
Tennis player

19 Mercedes Kastner
Actress


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