Quote of the Day
"Bravery is believing in yourself,
and that thing nobody can teach you."
-- El Cordobes, Spanish Matador (b.1936)
News of NoteOperation Iraqi Freedom
Military looks at options for Iraq -
VideoBush seeks backing for budget, IraqMilitary sees 2007 Iraq control handoverU.S. on Saddam: "Would have done it differently" -
VideoOfficial held in Saddam hanging videoNew video shows 5 kidnapped in IraqPodcast: Saddam's Execution and Troop Surge (Military.com)
Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Five killed in fighting between Palestinian rivalsBasque separatists say surprised by deadly ETA bombPentagon Won't Act on FBI's Gitmo ReportOther Military NewsFrozen Dinner -
PHOTO ESSAY (National Guard drops supplies out west)
Foreign spying on U.S. defense technology seen risingDoD Studies Patriot Missiles on F-15sReligion of Peace??U.S. aims to stop Islamic extremists fleeing Somalia -
VideoHomegrown MoonbatsDems Get Dis-Taste of Power -
VIDEO (Ah, irony...Mother Moonbat and friends hassle the Dems)Trump won't back down in O'Donnell feudPolitics / GovernmentGerald Ford Laid to Rest -
PHOTO ESSAYIntelligence czar leaving post to go to StateBush wants balance budget by 2012Congressman to be sworn in using QuranDemocrats promise action on ethics, IraqWho Writes a Memoir at 34? Obama Does.Immigration / Border ControlImmigrants behind 25 percent of startupsIn the Courts / Crime and PunishmentGunman kills male student at Washington high schoolSan Quentin stops taking new inmates amid stomach bugU.N. NewsOp-ed:
When the UN FailsScience / Medicine / NatureLittle Girl Forever?Televangelist Sued for Alleged Cancer Cure ClaimPanda-monium! China Sees Record '06 BirthsGroup: ExxonMobil Clouds Warming Debate2007 set to be world's warmest year: UK Met OfficeQuake-prone Istanbul awaits disasterDawn simulator curbs wintertime bluesFull-fat dairy products linked to lower weight, study saysParkinson's drugs can cause heart damage--studiesWoman to give birth after embryo rescueScientists may have found Medici murderGene test may help lung cancer patientsIrwin's wife gets video of his deathOdditiesRx for Fido: Woman Uses Dog for PainkillersTouchdown! Teen Finds Porn in 'Madden NFL' (Yikes!)Drumstick ad doesn't have a leg to stand on...French court rules pork soup kitchen not racistMetal object crashes through N.J. homeOther News of NoteParents Guilty in Baby Toe-Eating Pet CaseOfficials: Tacoma School Shooter in CustodyTwo more test positive for polonium in UK probeCompany claims '98 baseballs were juicedFox NewsDuke Invites Back Lacrosse Players1/3 of Wives Wouldn't Marry Hubby Again (I would)Booze Buster? New Cars Brake for DrunksBoy, 14, Sets Record in Sail Across AtlanticBuried Feces Offer Clues to Dead Sea ScrollsMom Charged for Baby Found on InterstateMike Tyson Faces Prison Over Drug ChargesShips, Planes Scour Ocean for Missing JetReuters: Top NewsJapan, U.S. to discuss Asia emergency plans: mediaToyota joined the "Big Three" in 2006Indonesia seeks missing plane with foreign helpMexico troops enter Tijuana in drug gang crackdownCosta Rican fishermen rescued after weeks at seaBlockbuster shuts down in Peru, piracy blamedPolice reunion rumors reaching fever pitchFox studio reports $3.56 billion box office in 2006Google's biggest bull sets $630 share price targetShares end flat in 2007 debut after Fed's minutesHot Topic tumbles 10.6 percent after slashing viewBlockbuster reaches 2 million online usersCatalyst Pharma trial delayed, stock offDeciphering student aidBond market woes set to stayAGL proposes A$13 billion tie-up with OriginFox studio reports $3.56 billion box office in 2006DaimlerChrysler to set up van venture in China: paperHome Depot's Nardelli out after year of criticismSABMiller's China jv to buy brewer for US$320 mlnAP World NewsLSU leads Irish at half of Sugar BowlFox's once-hot 'The O.C.' is canceledMegan Mullally's talk show canceledSaban hoping to turn the Tide at AlabamaHome Depot CEO Nardelli abruptly resignsDow ends up 11 on housing sector concernHeat coach Riley takes leave of absenceEarthLink CEO dies of cancerMilitary.comDT:
Pentagon Paying ScreenwritersExclusive:
Real Troop Letters HomeAre Marines Physically Prepped for...Advisors:
SEAL Pushup SystemCENTCOM: News ReleasesCOALITION FORCES, NATIONAL POLICE RESCUE TWO DURING RAID IN SOUTHEASTERN BAGHDADRAMADI WOMEN AND CHILDREN WOUNDED BY ENEMY ATTACKPARATROOPERS DISCOVER LARGE MUNITIONS CACHE 4TH BCT (AIRBORNE)NATIONAL POLICE SEIZE WEAPONS CACHES IN SOUTHEASTERN BAGHDADUSJFCOM2006 -- The Year in ReviewUSJFCOM gets approval to connect U.S., Australian networks -
podcastDepartment of DefenseNEWS UPDATESCaldwell: Iraq Will Control Own Ground Forces by Year's End -
Story -
VideoStability & Security in Iraq Report (pdf)For Top News Visit DefenseLinkON THE GROUNDIraqi Police Graduates Begin Working in Baqubah -
StoryPhysical Therapy Team Comes to Front Line -
StorySoldiers Work Fast to Keep Aircraft Refueled -
StoryTop Marines Visit Camp Taqaddum in Iraq -
StoryIN IRAQRaids in Iraq Yield Terrorists, Terror LeadersStryker Brigade Reunites in BaghdadCoalition Troops Kill 4 Terrorists; Iraqis Detain 21Iraqi Doctors Facilitate Change in HealthcareU.S. Troops Help Conduct Operations in SiniyahSoldiers Rescue Kidnapped Iraqis from InsurgentsCell Leader Killed in Iraq, Weapons Cache FoundFive Iranians Detained in Recent Baghdad RaidsIN AFGHANISTANAfghan Officials, U.S. Troops Open Runway Chief of Chaplains Brings Support to Region Buccaneers Return from Afghanistan TourBACKGROUNDIRAQRenewal In IraqIraq: Security, StabilityFact Sheet: Progress and Work AheadReport: Strategy for Victory in Iraq Iraq Daily UpdateThis Week in Iraq Multinational Force IraqState Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (PDF)'Boots on the Ground' Audio ArchiveWeekly Reconstruction Report (PDF) Iraq ReconstructionMapsAFGHANISTANAfghanistan UpdateMapsWAR ON TERRORISM
Fact Sheet: Budget RequestFact Sheet: War on TerrorFact Sheet: Terror Plots DisruptedWaging and Winning the War on TerrorTerrorism TimelineTerrorism Knowledge BaseWeatherAfghanistanBost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul QandaharGermanyAnsbach Aschaffenburg Berlin Berlin-Tempelhof Berlin/Schonefeld BremerhavenDarmstadt Frankfurt Frankfurt/Main Freiburg/Breisgau GarmischGarmisch-Partenkirchen Geilenkirchen Gelnhausen Giessen KitzingenHanau Am Main Heidelberg Mainz Mannheim Nurnberg Stuttgart TrierWiesbaden WurzburgGitmoGuamAgana Agana Heights Agat Andersen AFB Asan BarrigadaIraqAl Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al KutAn Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall KayfJapanKadena Air Base Okinawa Tokyo YokohamaPhilippinesBaler Radar Site Catanduanes Radar Site ManilaSouth KoreaCheju Upper/Radar Chonju Chunchon Inch'on Kunsan Masan Mokp'oOsan Pusan Seoul Suwon Taegu Taejon Tonghae Radar Site Ulsan Yosu* If you're deployed, and want to see your location's weather listed here, please email me! *Today in History0274 - St Eutychian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0871 - Battle at Reading Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1357 - Flemish Earl Louis & Luxembourg Duke Wenceslaus sign peace treaty
1493 - Columbus left new world on return from 1st voyage
1570 - Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
1642 - King Charles I with 400 soldiers attacks the English parliament
1717 - Netherlands, England & France sign Triple Alliance
1725 - Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
1762 - England declares war on Spain & Naples
1780 - Snowstorm hits Washington's army at Morristown New Jersey
1781 - André Méchain discovers M80 (globular cluster in Scorpio)
1832 - Insurrection of Blacks in Trinidad
1861 - US Fort Morgan, Mobile, seized by Alabama
1862 - Battle of Fort Hindman, AR (Arkansas Post); Battle of Helena, AR; Romney Campaign-Stonewall Jackson occupies Bath
1863 - 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY
1884 - Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)
1885 - Dr. W.W. Grant of Iowa performs 1st appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22)
1887 - Thomas Stevens is 1st man to bicycle around the world (San Francisco-San Francisco); 21,700km
1893 - US President Harrison grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
1894 - France ratifies Duple Alliance with Russia
1896 - Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
1912 - Smallest earth-moon distance in the 20th century, 356,375 km center-to-center
1915 - 1st elected Jewish Governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho; Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops
1920 - 1st Black baseball league, the National Negro Baseball League, organizes
1923 - Lenin's "Political Testament" calls for removal of Stalin
1925 - French psychologist Emil Coué brings his self-esteem therapy to US "Every day in every way I am getting better & better"
1926 - Theodorus Pangalos resigns as Greek dictator
1932 - British East Indies Viceroy Willingdon arrests Gandhi & Nehru; State of siege proclaimed in Honduras
1935 - Fort Jefferson National Monument, Florida established; Bob Hope 1st heard on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue"
1936 - Billboard magazine publishes its 1st music hit parade
1939 - Hermann Goering appoints Reinhard Heydrich head of Jewish Emigration
1941 - Resistance fighters counter d'Estienne d'Orves/Jan Doornik, 1st meet
1942 - Premier Churchill & General Marshall fly to Florida
1944 - Ralph Bunche appointed 1st Negro official in US State Department
1945 - Germans execute resistance fighters in Amsterdam; US jeep-aircraft carrier
Ommaney Bay sinks after kamikaze attack
1948 - Britain grants independence to Burma
1951 - During Korean conflict, North Korean forces captured Seoul
1954 - Elvis Presley records a 10 minute demo in Nashville
1958 - Sputnik 1 reenters atmosphere & burns up
1959 - Luna 1 (Mechta) becomes 1st craft to leave Earth's gravity
1960 - European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm
1961 - Longest recorded strike ends-33 years-Danish barbers' assistants
1962 - 1st automated (unmanned) subway train (New York City NY)
1963 - Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon
1965 - LBJ's "Great Society" State of the Union Address
1968 - Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas
1969 - France begins arms embargo against Israel
1970 - Walter Cronkite ends hosting weekly documentary
1971 - Dr. Melvin H. Evans inaugurated as 1st elected Governor of Virgin Islands; Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims; Philadelphia's Veteran Stadium dedicated; Congressional Black Caucus organizes
1974 - Nixon refuses to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee
1975 - Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica; Ford Executive Order on CIA Activities within the US (No 11828)
1980 - President Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
1981 - British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"
1982 - Golden Gate Bridge closed for 3rd time by fierce storm
1989 - Vice President Bush is 1st since Vice President Van Buren to declare himself President; US F-14s shoot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean
1991 - AT&T workers in Newark accidentally snap a cable;
Iraq agrees to send Aziz to Geneva to meet Baker on Jan 9th; Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland
1995 - Newt Gingrich (R) becomes Speaker of the House
Birthdays
1334 - Amadeus VI [Green Earl], Earl of Savoye
1785 - Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, German librarian (fairy tale collector)
1789 - Benjamin Lundy, philanthropist/abolitionist
1797 - Wilhelm Beer, German amateur astronomer (constructed 1st Moon map)
1809 - Louis Braille, developer (reading system for blind)
1813 - Alexander Freiherr von Bach, Austrian attorney/premier (1852-59); Louis L. Bonaparte, English/French linguist/senator
1821 - John James Peck, Union Major General
1822 - Joseph Jones Reynolds, Union Major General
1823 - Otto van Rees, Governor-General of Dutch-Indies (1884-88)
1823 - Peter Joseph Osterhaus, Union Major General
1838 - Charles Stratton, (General Tom Thumb - famous short person)
1890 - Alfred G. Jodl, German Wehrmacht General/Chief of Staff; Mosa Pijade, Yugoslavia, MP (communist)
1895 - Lourens G.M. Baas Becking, Dutch botanist/resistance fighter
1896 - Everett McKinley Dirkson (Senator-R-IL)
1903 - Ramón Ernesto Cruz Uclés Honduras President (1971-72); overthrown
1908 - Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal Austrian nude model/Hitler's lover
1913 - Malietoa Tanumafili II King of West-Samoa (1962- )
1914 - Jane Wyman, 1st Mrs. Ronald Reagan / actress; Mohammed Sahir shah (Afghanistan)
1920 - William Egan Colby, CIA director (Nixon)
1933 - Ed Jenkins (Representative-GA, 1977-1992)
1935 - Kenneth Money, Canadian-born astronaut (STS 42-alt)
1940 - Brian Josephson, British physicist (Nobel 1973)
1947 - J. Danforth Quayle (Senator-IN, 44th Vice President - 1989-1993)
Passings
0041 - Caligula, Roman emperor, murdered
1678 - Johan Maetsuyker, Dutch Governor-General of Ceylon (1653-78), dies at 71
1695 - Duke of Luxembourg, Luxembourg/French marshal, dies
1701 - Ernst R. Tarhemberg, Austrian field marshal, dies at 62
1707 - Louis Willem I, count of Baden-Baden, dies
1729 - Joseph de Montesquiou Earl d'Artagnan, French Lieutenant-General , dies at 77
1821 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1st native-born American saint, dies in Maryland
1877 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, US robber baron, dies at 82
1910 - Léon Delagrange, French aviation pioneer
1913 - Alfred von Schlieffen, Prussian General-field marshal, dies at 79
1957 - Theodor Körner von Siegringen, Austrian President (1951-57), dies at 84
1958 - Waverley John Anderson, Viscount/Governor of Bengal, dies at 75
1967 - Donald Campbell, boat racer, dies trying to break 300 mph on water
1968 - Joseph Pholien, Belgian PM (1950-52) / communist fighter, dies at 83
1985 - Brian Gwynne Horrocks, English Lieutenant-General (A Full Life), dies at 89
1990 - Alberto Lleras Camargo, President of Colombia (1945-46, 58-62)
1994 - Michiel P. "Michael" Gorsira, Governor of Curaçao (1951-67), dies at 80
1996 - Roy McKelvie, soldier/sports writer, dies at 83
1997 - Harry B. Helmsley, owner (Empire State Building), dies at 87
Reported Missing in Action
1968
Minnich, Richard W.,
USN (PA); F8E shot down, remains recovered December, 1985
1969
Lane, Mitchell S.,
USAF (NM); F100C disappeared while on mission
Neeld, Bobby G.,
USAF (NM); F100C disappeared while on mission
1973
Johnston, Steven B.,
USAF (OK); F4D shot down, presumed Killed in ejection, body not recovered