28 Responses to “This Day in Liberty”

1. #1 |  Angie |  April 19th, 2004 at 9:49 am

   Happy Birthday !! :)

2. #2 |  Meek |  April 19th, 2004 at 9:58 am

   Happy day to ya Radley. If you’re like most, in another 20 yrs or so you’ll probably morph into rabid right-winger. A little more of life’s experiences tends to alter one’s view of the world and it’s problems. What you now hold as absolute can get a little mushy as the decades roll by …..speaking as someone who knows!!

   Meek

3. #3 |  Frank N |  April 19th, 2004 at 10:10 am

   have a happy

   may you be blessed with all of the finer things…or at least the hot personal assistant in legal…

   :-0

4. #4 |  Chris Farley |  April 19th, 2004 at 10:36 am

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

   Beware of Monkeys bearing gifts. This is, historically, a very revolutionary date.

5. #5 |  Joe Sims |  April 19th, 2004 at 10:40 am

   from WIKIPEDIA:

   Events
   1012 – Martyrdom of St Alphege in Greenwich, London.
   1529 – At the Diet of Speyer a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities (German: Reichsstadt) protested the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms. This movement was later called Protestantism.
   1539 – The Treaty of Frankfurt is signed.
   1587 – Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz Harbor.
   1770 – Captain James Cook first spots Australia.
   1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord – British General Thomas Gage attempts to confiscate American colonists’ firearms. The British are driven back to Boston, Massachusetts. The American Revolutionary War begins.
   1810 – Venezuela achieves home rule: Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a Junta is installed.
   1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
   1861 – American Civil War: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
   1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
   1904 – Much of Toronto, Ontario, Canada is destroyed by fire.
   1909 – Joan of Arc is declared a saint.
   1919 – Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful parachute jump and free fall.
   1927 – Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
   1933 – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announces that the United States will be leaving the gold standard.
   1934 – Shirley Temple debuts in Stand Up and Cheer.
   1938 – RCA-NBC begins regular television broadcasts.
   1943 – World War II: German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
   1951 – General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
   1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco.
   1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in failure.
   1964 – The Ford Mustang is introduced to the general public.
   1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic.
   1971 – Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, DC.
   1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to life in prison for the Sharon Tate murders.
   1987 – The Simpsons make their first appearance on television, on The Tracey Ullman Show, in the short episode called “Good Night”.
   1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
   1989 – Trisha Meili, the “Central Park Jogger” is raped.
   1993 – The 50-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex outside Waco, Texas ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
   1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is bombed, killing 168.
   1999 – The German Parliament returns to Berlin.
   2000 – An Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 crashes nearby Davao airport killing 131.

   Births
   1320 – King Peter I of Portugal (d. 1367)
   1721 – Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1793)
   1721 – Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1817)
   1772 – David Ricardo, economist (d. 1823)
   1883 – Richard von Mises, mathematician (d. 1953)
   1892 – Germaine Tailleferre, composer (d. 1983)
   1897 – Constance Talmadge, actress (d. 1973)
   1900 – Richard Hughes, novelist (d. 1976)
   1903 – Eliot Ness (d. 1957)
   1912 – Glenn Seaborg (d. 1999)
   1927 – Erma Bombeck, humorist (d. 1996)
   1928 – Alexis Korner, rock musician (d. 1984)
   1930 – Dick Sargent, actor (d. 1994)
   1933 – Jayne Mansfield, actress (d. 1967)
   1933 – Dickie Bird, cricket umpire
   1935 – Dudley Moore, actor, musician, comedian, composer (d. 2002)
   1942 – Frank Elstner, television producer
   1944 – Bernie Worrell, keyboardist (originally with P Funk)
   1946 – Tim Curry, actor
   1949 – Paloma Picasso, painter
   1952 – Alexis Arguello, boxer
   1953 – Ruby Wax, television personality
   1962 – Al Unser Jr., automobile racer
   1965 – Suge Knight, record producer
   1968 – Ashley Judd, actress
   1979 – Kate Hudson, actress
   1981 – Hayden Christensen, actor

   Deaths
   1054 – Pope Leo IX (b. 1002)
   1390 – King Robert II of Scotland (b. 1316)
   1632 – Sigismund, king of Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (b. 1561)
   1689 – Queen Christina of Sweden (b. 1626)
   1813 – Benjamin Rush, physician, activist (b. 1745)
   1824 – Lord Byron, author, poet (b. 1788)
   1881 – Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)
   1882 – Charles Darwin, biologist, author (b. 1809)
   1906 – Pierre Curie, physicist (b. 1859)
   1914 – Charles Sanders Pierce, pragmatic semiologist (b. 1839)
   1930 – Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, Canadian Senator (b. 1827)
   1937 – William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (b. 1856)
   1949 – Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)
   1958 – Robert Bentley, humorist, actor
   1967 – Konrad Adenauer, former Bundeskanzler of West Germany (b. 1876)
   1971 – Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (b. 1895)
   1974 – Ayub Khan, former President of Pakistan (b. 1907)
   1975 – Percy L. Julian, chemist (b. 1899)
   1987 – Maxwell Taylor, general (b. 1901)
   1989 – Daphne du Maurier, author (b. 1907)
   1992 – Frankie Howerd, comedian, actor (b. 1917)
   1993 – David Koresh, cult leader (b. 1959)
   1998 – Octavio Paz, writer, diplomat (b. 1914)

   Holidays and observances
   Patriots’ Day (Massachusetts)
   Declaration of Independence Day (Venezuela)
   Republic Day (Sierra Leone)
   Landing of the 33 (Uruguay)
   Primrose Day (England) – primroses are placed on the statue of Benjamin Disraeli in Parliament Square, London on the anniversary of his death (1881). Primroses were his favourite flower.
   The Roman holiday of Cerealia ends. (Roman Empire)

6. #6 |  Rich Casebolt |  April 19th, 2004 at 10:53 am

   “Anyone who is not a liberal at twenty has no heart; anyone who
   is not a conservative at forty has no head.”

   And in between, you become libertarian …

   … just eleven more years, Radley.

   (just kidding — always be true to your convictions, wherever they lead you … though if they lead you to prison, you might want to change them).

   Happy birthday!
   

7. #7 |  msc |  April 19th, 2004 at 11:01 am

   (breathily)…Happy Birthday Mr. Balko…Happy (pause) Birthday to (pause) you.

   MwwwwwwwA!

   -Melissa

8. #8 |  Brian Hawkins |  April 19th, 2004 at 11:58 am

   Happy birthday old man! (JK…I’m right behind you.)

9. #9 |  Danno49 |  April 19th, 2004 at 12:02 pm

   Happy birthday. One more year and no one will trust you.

10. #10 |  Jeff |  April 19th, 2004 at 1:36 pm

    Wee babe. :)

11. #11 |  Dave |  April 19th, 2004 at 1:40 pm

    Whoo-hoo! A very happy birthday to you, Radley!

12. #12 |  Travis |  April 19th, 2004 at 1:51 pm

    Happy Birthday Radley!

13. #13 |  Bronwyn |  April 19th, 2004 at 4:36 pm

    Happy birthday, Radley!

    I’m a tax day baby, myself, and only 2 years behind you.

    “Late Twenties”

    blech.

14. #14 |  Sara |  April 19th, 2004 at 4:37 pm

    Happy Birthday Rad-o!
    SW

15. #15 |  MattG |  April 19th, 2004 at 7:11 pm

    Yeah, feliz cumplean~os!

16. #16 |  Rich Casebolt |  April 19th, 2004 at 11:44 pm

    Bronwyn — I was born around a month past Christmas … and I thought my parents had the best excuse to go cheap on birthdays.

    Your parents had the ultimate excuse.

17. #17 |  wade |  April 20th, 2004 at 4:57 am

    hey, Radley, i hope you are going to prove this wrong…

    Winter babies are born to party

    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=5122

18. #18 |  Wayne |  April 20th, 2004 at 10:15 am

    Happy Birthday and keep the agitation running high for others.

19. #19 |  Ms. Dani |  April 20th, 2004 at 10:47 am

    The day Radley’s future-wife gives birth to their first child is the day he will become a Republican.

    Merry day to you Mr. Balko

20. #20 |  Bronwyn |  April 20th, 2004 at 12:19 pm

    :-) They did have a good excuse, didn’t they? My mom’s birthday is a week after Christmas, and my boyfriend’s is the week before.

    We’re all in prime position for getting gypped on our birthdays.

    How in the hell do you spell gypped, anyway?

21. #21 |  Joe Sims |  April 20th, 2004 at 5:36 pm

    Bronwyn,

    personally, I spell it R-A-C-I-S-T.

    The Rroma people have had to endure centuries of persecution, mistrust and attempted genocide due to their nomadic, itinerant lifestyle, and to equate getting ripped off or conned as ‘being gypped’ is offensive.

    You wouldn’t say that you “J**ed down” the price of your car, or that you “N*****-rigged” your lawn mower to make it run, would you? So what makes the Rroma a fair-game target? How would you like it if everyone started saying “man, that guy is a real Bronwyn”, when they were referring to someone being an ignorant and racially insensitive boob?

    [And yeah, I realize that 'getting gypped' is a common expression, but so were my two examples prior to the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Just because they were common didn't make them any less racist, either.]

22. #22 |  Bronwyn |  April 20th, 2004 at 9:31 pm

    Thanks for the history lesson, Joe.

    Next time though, instead of basically calling me an ignorant racist (or calling anyone a name when you want to enlighten or correct them), just tell me straight.

    Sheesh.

    We still call Jerry Cans Jerry Cans, don’t we? Guess we should stop that because it comes from a slur against Germans. Oh, but not enough people are bothered by that one, are they? And that stewardess (I’m sorry, Flight Attendant) who said, “eeny meeny miney moe, pick a seat we’ve got to go” to a plane load of lolly-gaggers (quick, give me the history lesson on that one!) was really being a racist and should be fired.

    That flight attendant didn’t know the origins or original phrasing of the rhyme she chose and meant no harm by it.

    Same for me. Now I know, I will more than likely check my tongue and say “ripped off” or “cheated” or something else that’s PC.

    My point is, try to make your points without acting like a jerk about it and realize that we are all pretty intelligent folk around here. We don’t all share the same knowledge however, and should take that into consideration when choosing whether or not to berate someone.

    Tact: Learn it, love it, live it.

    Bronwyn out ;-)

23. #23 |  Joe Sims |  April 21st, 2004 at 8:20 am

    Bronwyn,

    Sorry I offended you.

    Joe

    (BTW, I’m being sincere here. I wasn’t thinking when I said those hurtful things about you, and an apology is due.)

24. #24 |  Ms. Dani |  April 21st, 2004 at 8:28 am

    That last interaction between Brownwyn and Joe was very American. It’s too bad more Americans are not mature enough to resolve misunderstandings within two comments as they just did. Bravo.

25. #25 |  Bronwyn |  April 21st, 2004 at 8:39 am

    Good observation, Ms. D. Were we the average sort, this would have become a flamewar.

    :-)

    Apology accepted, Joe. I was hoping you didn’t really mean to sound so. . . mean.

    *handshake*

26. #26 |  Joe Sims |  April 21st, 2004 at 9:25 am

    Actually, I just wanted to be the first person in the history of the internet to apologize for something I said!! :-)

    Seriously, though, it was a knee-jerk reaction to an expression that (sadly) has become idiomatic for virtually every culture in the world. As a person of Tsigani descent, I get tired of my ancestry being unfairly denigrated. But that doesn’t give me the right to be an asshole about it, especially when I know that it’s the worst way to educate people on the plight of the Gypsies.

    For more information, check out this website:

    http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/patrin.htm

27. #27 |  Bronwyn |  April 21st, 2004 at 10:11 am

    Hey, I’m a RedMickWopKraut. I understand completely.

    RedMickWopKraut – say it altogether and it sounds like a fast food meal.

28. #28 |  Ms. Dani |  April 21st, 2004 at 10:31 am

    Thanks Joe. I totally went off on a tangent reading that website. I actually spent some time recently trying to figure out who the Romas were and from whence they came. Enlightening, gratifying. Need more input.

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