Thursday, June 25, 2009

Spotlight
On this date in 1876, General George Armstrong Custer and his entire force of about 210 men were wiped out by Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux Indians led by Chief Sitting Bull, in the Battle of Little Bighorn. Also known as Custer's Last Stand, the battle went down in history as one of the US Army's most infamous defeats. Today, a monument stands on the site — near Montana's Little Bighorn River — marking a mass burial ground for all the soldiers who were killed there, except Custer. His body was exhumed and reburied in the cemetery at West Point.

Quote
"There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry." — George Armstrong Custer

Question of the Day
Was Sitting Bull killed in the Battle of Little Bighorn?
No, Sitting Bull was not killed there, but he was present. The battle occurred in 1876. Sitting Bull died in 1890, killed in a misunderstanding while being arrested by reservation police. .

It happened when he was being detained for suspicion that he was involved in the Ghost Dance uprising. The government crackdown on the Ghost Dance movement led to the Massacre at Wounded Knee the same year Sitting Bull was killed.

Word of the day
fletching

Fletching is the ancient art of aerodynamically stabilizing arrows from materials such as feathers. The English-language surname "Fletcher" derives from this term, meaning "one who fletches." It is sometimes generally used for an arrow-maker, not only for someone restricted to this step of the process....

(© Wikipedia)

Today's History

Douglas Hyde

• Douglas Hyde: became the first president of Ireland (1938)
• Korean War: broke out when the communist North invaded the South (1950)
• Yugoslavia: former republics Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence (1991)
• Mir space station: was struck by an unmanned Progress spacecraft (1997)
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Teheran mayor was elected president of Iran (2005)

Today's Birthdays

Ricky Gervais

• George Abbott (1887-1995): writer/director who won 40 Tonys and a Pulitzer; also, filmmakers Sidney Lumet (85), Gary David Goldberg (65) and Michael Lembeck (61)
• Eric Carle (80): author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar; plus, writers Benito Lynch (1885-1951), George Orwell (1903-1950) and Aimé Césaire (1913-2008)
• Ricky Gervais (48): award-winning writer/actor/standup comedian, The Office, Extras: also, actors June Lockhart (84), Jimmie Walker (62), Erica Gimpel (45), Angela Kinsey (38), Linda Cardellini (34) and Busy Philipps (30)
• George Michael (46): pop singer; singers Carly Simon (64), David Paich (55), Richie Rich (42), Candyman (41) and Mike Kroeger (37) share this birth date
• Carlos Delgado (37): Mets first-baseman; sports stars Willis Reed (67), Dikembe Mutombo (43) and Aramis Ramirez (31) were also born today