Wonderful Wolrd

Don't know much about history?



Here's your Saturday lesson!



1828 Casparus van Wooden patents chocolate milk powder (Amsterdam)

He is harassed by a crazed rabbit for the rest of his life.



1841 President William Henry Harrison died from pneumonia, one month after his inauguration.

And Glenn Beck's great grandfather breaks down weeping...setting a precedent for generations to come.



1850 City of Los Angeles incorporated

And immediately filed for bankruptcy.



1870 Golden Gate Park established by City Order #800

Thus giving the homeless and drug addled in 1870 a place to call home.



1955 British government signs military treaty with Iraq

An infant Rush Limbaugh calls them cowards...and Glenn Beck's father cries.



1964 "Anyone Can Whistle" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 9 performances

Sadly it closed after repeated picketing by the "We Can't Whistle" Association.



1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

And an 80 year old woman in Las Vegas thinks she's hit the jackpot.



1975 Steve Miller is arrested for burning his girlfriend's clothes

The only thing he didn't burn was the bra.



~ Glenn

Day by day

This day in history!

1797 - Nathaniel Briggs patented a washing machine
And promoptly told his wife that washing the clothes wasn't his job.

1885 - The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.
Officially undefeated in all wars since then too.

1908 - Automobile owners lobbied the U.S. Congress, supporting a bill that called for vehicle licensing and federal registration.
Then, in 1909, the first person to complain about the cost of renewing his license was recorded.

1941 - The Italian fleet was defeated by the British at the Battle of Matapan.
Probably brought down by the Salvation Army.

1962 - The U.S. Air Force announced research into the use of lasers to intercept missiles and satellites.
And somewhere Ronald Reagan had an orgasm.

1974 - A streaker ran onto the set of "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson."
And that streakers name? Paul Harvey!

1979 - A major accident occurred at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. A nuclear power reactor overheated and suffered a partial meltdown.
Oddly the same thing happned to me on this date once.

1990 - Jesse Owens received the Congressional Gold Medal from U.S. President George Bush.
But he had to catch him first!

~ Glenn

Family Tradition

I have been studying my family's genealogy for many years now.

In fact there are times when I become obsessed (as my lovely wife will gladly tell me) and it is all I want to do.

But after a while you find that there are no more surprises. You hit one brick wall after another and you lose the will to keep looking.

So it was recently that I was considering ending my memberships and the various sites I use for my research.

But just tonight my daughter said she needed some information on members of our family you served in the military.

And there are more than a few!

My father was in the Air Force and served in Germany during Vietnam.
His brother was in Vietnam in the late 60's.
Their father was in the Army and was station in Panama during World War II.
My other grandfather was also in the Army and was in France during WWII.

I was showing her pictures and newspaper articles...even my grandfathers WWII duffel bag that still has his canteen, sandwich maker and other items he carried with him half-way around the world over 60 years ago.

So as I dug around for information the old genealogy bug bit me and I started going through my old files again.

It was then that I remembered a chance email from this past summer.

A distant relative had turned up doing research and was looking for information that I had. Our common ancestor was long gone, but I had the dates and info she needed. In exchange she said she had pictures of the person in question.

One problem.

She traveled during the summer and would not be to her home state until winter.

I was willing to wait.

Coincidentally, tonight as I was preparing to email her and see if she ever made it home I got an email with three pictures of my great aunt!



Its like finding a treasure!

Pictures of someone that you studied and know so much about, but never knew what they looked like!

My dad had never seen the pictures and didn't recognize his own aunt. He's going to show them to my grandmother (his mother) and see if she knows anyone else in the pictures.

I realize its not Indiana Jones finding the Holy Grail...but it gives me hope that there may be more discoveries and there might be more to my family than I already know after 10 years of research.

~ Glenn