HISTORY ON APRIL 30

Christopher Colombus, Explorer or Exploiter?

Today is Wednesday, April 30, the 121st day of 2008 with 245 days to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

This Day in History, April 30
On April 30th, 1492, Christopher Columbus was granted a commission for exploration by Spain.


Other Notable Events, April 30
In 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States.

In 1803, the United States more than doubled its land area with the Louisiana Purchase. It obtained all French territory west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.

In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to appear on television when he was televised on opening day at the New York World's Fair.

In 1945, the burned body of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was found in a bunker in the ruins of Berlin. Also that day, Soviet troops captured the Reichstag building in Berlin.

In 1948, 21 nations of the Western hemisphere formed the Organization of American States.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship title when he refused to be drafted into the military.

In 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon announced he was sending U.S. troops into Cambodia to destroy the "sanctuaries" from which communist forces from North Vietnam were sending men and material into South Vietnam.

In 1975, South Vietnam unconditionally surrendered to North Vietnam. The communists occupied Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City.

In 1990, U.S. educator Frank Reed was freed after a 3 1/2-year ordeal as hostage of extremists in Lebanon, becoming the second abducted American freed in Beirut in just more than a week.

Also in 1991, political talks between Roman Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists in Northern Ireland opened. They were the first such discussions in 15 years.

And in 1991, Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui ended 43 years of emergency rule, authorized elections and renounced the use of force to reunify China.

In 1993, Monica Seles, the world's No. 1 women's tennis player, was stabbed in the back and wounded by a self-described fan of second-ranked Steffi Graf during a match in Germany.

In 1995, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the suspension of all U.S. trade with Iran to protest funding of terrorism.

In 1998, a grand jury indicted Webster Hubbell and his wife on tax evasion charges, Hubbell, a close friend and associate of U.S. President Bill Clinton, accused Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr of having him indicted so he would lie about the president.

Also in 1998, the U.S. Senate approved the applications of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to join NATO.

In 2002, the United States sent 1,000 more troops to eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border in an effort to prevent Taliban and al-Qaida forces from regrouping.

In 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his government wouldn't support the proposed "road map" peace plan until Palestinians stopped anti-Israel violence. But, he said he favored creation of a Palestinian state.

In 2004, the White House condemned alleged mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad as intolerable and "despicable."

In 2005, the bodies of 113 people, nearly all women and children, were found in a mass grave in southern Iraq.

Also in 2005, Jennifer Wilbanks, a Georgia woman who attracted national attention when she vanished days before her wedding, turned up in New Mexico, claiming to have been abducted but later admitting she was a "runaway bride."

In 2006, Israel's Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert denounced the president of Iran as a psychopath in a newspaper interview and compared him to Adolf Hitler.

Also in 2006, two rebel factions in Sudan rejected a peace agreement in the Darfur conflict. Officials estimate the bloody fighting had killed at least 180,000 and driven more than 2 million from their homes.

In 2007, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was severely criticized by a government commission report for his leadership in the 2006 conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Also in 2007, a British judge sentenced five men to life in prison after they were convicted of plotting bombing attacks across the United Kingdom.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 29

JAMES COOK
On April 29th, 1770, James Cook arrived at and named Botany Bay, Australia.

Other Notable Events, April 29
In 1864, Ashmun Institute in Pennsylvania, the first college founded solely for African-American students, was officially chartered.

In 1885, women were admitted for the first time to examinations at England's Oxford University.

In 1913, Gideon Sundbach of Hoboken, N.J., was issued a patent for the zipper.

In 1945, U.S. troops liberated 32,000 prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany.

In 1985, four gunmen escaped with nearly $8 million in cash stolen from the Wells Fargo armored car company in New York.

In 1986, an arson fire destroyed more than 1 million books in the Los Angeles Central Library.

In 1988, the first condor conceived in captivity was born at San Diego Wild Animal Park.

In 1991, more than 100 people were killed when an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale rocked Soviet Georgia, destroying hospitals, schools, factories and 17,000 homes.

In 1992, rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four white police officers of nearly all charges in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Fifty-three people died in three days of protest and violence.

Also in 1992, a Sarasota, Fla., judge denied custody rights to the biological parents of a 13-year-old girl, ruling she should remain with the man who raised her since the 1978 hospital mix-up of infants.

In 1994, an estimated 250,000 Rwandans fleeing the fighting crossed the border into neighboring Tanzania in one day.

In 2004, U.S. President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney underwent more than three hours of questioning about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Neither was under oath and the session wasn't recorded.

Also in 2004, the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that many of the bombings and other attacks in Iraq were being coordinated by members of Saddam Hussein's secret service.

In 2005, U.S. spy agencies were reported to be convinced that North Korea had the capability to build missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons to targets in California.

Also in 2005, at least 27 people were killed and 100 wounded as insurgents targeted Iraqi forces with bombs in a horrific three-hour melee in and near Baghdad.

In 2006, the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center said international terror attacks numbered 11,111 attacks in 2005, nearly four times more than the previous year.

Also in 2006, the Sudanese government said it was ready to sign a peace agreement for the long embattled Darfur region where an estimated 180,000 people had died and at least 2 million became refugees.

In 2007, the Tamil Tiger rebels launched an air attack on Sri Lanka's two oil facilities near the capital city of Colombo.

Also in 2007, worldwide protests were staged on behalf of the fourth anniversary of the Darfur conflict in Sudan where death estimates have ranged as high as 400,000.


Notable Birthdays for April 29
Those born on this date include:
- Publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1863
- Bandleader and composer Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington in 1899
- Japanese emperor Hirohito in 1901
- Actress Celeste Holm in 1919 (age 89)
- English skiffle group leader Lonnie Donegan in 1931
- Poet Rod McKuen in 1933 (age 75)
- Conductor Zubin Mehta in 1936 (age 72)
- Long-distance runner and former U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan. in 1947 (age 61)
- Golfer Johnny Miller in 1947 (age 61)
- Auto racer Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1951
- Comedian Nora Dunn ( Saturday Night Live ) in 1952 (age 56)
- Comedian Jerry Seinfeld in 1954 (age 54)
- Actress Kate Mulgrew ( Star Trek: Voyager ) in 1955 (age 53)
- Actor Daniel Day-Lewis in 1957 (age 51)
- Actress Michelle Pfeiffer in 1958 (age 50)
- Actress Eve Plumb (Jan on The Brady Bunch) in 1958 (age 50)
- Tennis player Andre Agassi in 1970 (age 38)
- Actress Uma Thurman in 1970 (age 38)


Copyright 2008 by United Press International

SOS. HELP BRUNO. Blog Solidarity

The boy in this photo is Bruno Alberto Gentiletti. He disappeared on March 2, 1997 in Rosario's resort called La Florida when he was 9 years old (See for photo).

Bruno has green greyish eyes, chestnut-colored hair, white skin and a scar located in the right scapula. He was born on June 18, 1988 in Las Rosas, Santa Fe, Argentina.

Today Bruno is 19 years old. His family did a study of progression of age at the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Bruno would look like the second photo now.

We believe that you can help us find him. So I ask you to send an email with the information and/or the address of this blog http://brunogentiletti.blogspot.com to all your friends and acquaintances, in this country and around the world, so that in turn, they can do the same.
Like Bruno, there are thousands of children who have been denied the right to grow up with their families and they all deserve that an effort be made to find them.
Thank you for YOUR HELP!!!

Marisa Olguín ( Bruno’s Mother)
Juan de Garay 867 - Las Rosas - Santa Fe - Argentina
Tel.: 03471-454212
e-mail: molguin-brunogentiletti@hotmail.com
padresporlavidalasrosas@hotmail.com

WHAT HAPPENED ON APRIL 27 OF OTHER YEARS?

Everything we do and say become part of history so we must watch how we walk, listen to what we say and focus on where we go. (Brenda A. Ysaguirre)

Today is Sunday, April 27, the 118th day of 2008 with 248 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.
Other Notable Events, April 27
In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives of the Philippine islands as he attempted to be the first to circumnavigate the world. His co-leader, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, completed the voyage in 1522.

In 1850, the American-owned steamship "The Atlantic" began regular trans-Atlantic passenger service. It was the first U.S. vessel to challenge what had been a British monopoly.

In 1865, the steamship Sultana, heavily overloaded with an estimated 2,300 passengers, most of them Union soldiers en route home, exploded on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis. The death toll in the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history was set at 1,450.

In 1937, the first Social Security payment was made in the United States.

In 1984, an 11-day siege ended at Libya's London embassy that began with the shooting of a policewoman. Britain broke diplomatic relations with Libya over the incident.

In 1987, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from the United States, citing the alleged role of the former U.N. secretary-general in Nazi war crimes.

In 1991, an estimated 70 tornadoes hit Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa, killing 23 people and leaving thousands homeless.

Also in 1991, the first group of Kurdish refugees to return to Iraq arrived by U.S. military helicopter at a safe haven near the Turkish border.

In 1993, Kuwait said it had foiled an Iraqi plot to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush during his visit earlier in the month.

Also in 1993, the final vote tallies showed Russia's Boris Yeltsin winning a solid victory in a referendum on his presidency and economic reforms.

In 1994, fighting flared anew in Rwanda only one day after separate cease-fires by rival tribes took effect.

Also in 1994, Virginia executed a condemned killer in the first case in which DNA testing was used to obtain a conviction.

In 2000, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced he had prostate cancer but said he hoped to continue is campaign for the U.S. Senate. He later dropped out of the race.

In 2003, Taiwan said it would bar visitors from China, Hong Kong, Canada and Singapore to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, widely known as SARS.

In 2004, U.S. congressional Democrats rolled out a plan for winning the war on terror, calling for an intelligence czar and a "Marshall Plan" for the Middle East.

Also in 2004, U.S. military units moved into positions once held by Spanish troops outside the holy city of Najaf, sparking fighting that killed some 40 insurgents.

In 2005, the U.S. State Department said the number of major international terrorist incidents more than tripled to 655 the previous year.

In 2006, a seven-month U.S. Senate committee inquiry said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was "in shambles" and should be replaced with a new agency.

Also in 2006, a senior Israeli intelligence official said Iran has purchased missiles from North Korea with a 1,200-mile range, capable of reaching Europe.

In 2007, Saudi Arabia announced the arrest of 172 terrorist suspects in a series of raids after uncovering a plot for suicide air attacks on oil and military installations.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

Notable Birthdays for April 27
Those born on this date include:
- English historian Edward Gibbon in 1737
- Samuel F.B. Morse, American artist and inventor of magnetic telegraphy, in 1791
- Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War general and 18th president of the United States, in 1822
- Wallace Carothers, inventor of nylon, in 1896
- English poet C. Day Lewis in 1904
- Actor Jack Klugman in 1922 (age 86)
- Coretta Scott King, wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., in 1927
- Radio/TV host Casey Kasem in 1932 (age 76)
- Actress Sandy Dennis in 1937
- Pop singer Sheena Easton in 1959 (age 49)

Copyright 2008 by United Press International