Chattanooga Choo Choo

The first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for Chattanooga Choo Choo on this day in 1941.

I haven’t been able to listen to his song in quite the same way since the mid to late 1970s when the Otago University Capping Sextet sang their version of it.

Green Acres

Eva Gabor would have been 91 today.

I loved Green Acres when I was a child, but looking at this makes me think some things are better in memory than in reality.

Which toy would you choose?

We’re going to the Waimumu field days today.

I haven’t been before but know what to expect – lots of big noisy things which remind me of an email received from a reader last year.

He’d been doing work on his property which required the assistance of a digger. He’d left that to the expert but with some regret that he hadn’t been able to play with the big toy himself.

That led him to write a list of the tools/implements he’d really like to have which, if memory serves me correctly, included a digger and a chain saw.

I’m not into noisy toys but if I had to choose one I’d have to confess I’ve never grown out of the thrill which comes from playing with water. That would put a water blaster at the top of my list.

What would you put on yours?

Flag debate isn’t flagging

There are more important things to concentrate on than whether or not we change our flag but the debate over it is continuing.

Heartened by John Key’s admission he’d prefer a silver fern, John Ansell has launched a poll to find out which silver fern most people prefer.

Meanwhile, the latest bid on the TradeMe auction for the Prime Ministerial doodle of a flag is $18,888. The winner will also be invited to morning tea with the Prime Minister.

February 11 in history

On February 11:

660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.

1531 Henry VIII  was recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.

1752  Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, opened.

1790 Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for abolition of slavery.

1794 First session of United States Senate open to the public.

1808 Anthracite coal was first burned as a fuel, experimentally.

 

1809 Robert Fulton filed a patent for improvements to steamboat navigation.

1812 Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry “gerrymandered” for the first time.

1814 Norway‘s independence was proclaimed, marking the ultimate end of the Kalmar Union.

1826 University College London was founded under the name University of London.

1826 Swaminarayan wrote the Shikshapatri, an important test within the Swaminarayan faith.

1840 Gaetano Donizetti‘s opera La Fille du Régiment received its first performance in Paris.

1843 Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera I Lombardi received its first performance in Milan.

1847 Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor, was born.

1855 Kassa Hailu was crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III.

 

1861 United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.

1864 Charles Heaphy was recommended for a VC for rescuing a soldier while under fire.

  1873 King Amadeus I of Spain abdicated.

1904 Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister of New Zealand, was born.

1905 Pope Pius X published the encyclical Vehementer nos.

1916 Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control.

 

1917 Sidney Sheldon, American author, was born.

1919 Eva Gabor, Hungarian-born actress, was born.

1919 Friedrich Ebert (SPD), was elected President of Germany.

1920 King Farouk I of Egypt, was born.

1929 Italy and the Vatican signed the Lateran Treaty.

1934 Mary Quant, English fashion designer, was born.

1936 Burt Reynolds, American actor, was born.

1938 BBC Television produced the world’s first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of  the Karel Capek play R.U.R., which coined the term “robot“.

 A scene from the play, showing three robots.

1938 Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer, was born.

1939 A Lockheed XP-38 flew from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.

1941 The first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for “Chattanooga Choo Choo“.

1943 General Dwight Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.

 

1948 John Costello succeeds Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach of Ireland.

1963 Julia Child‘s show The French Chef premiered.

1964 Sarah Palin, 11th Governor of Alaska, was born.

1969 Jennifer Aniston, American actress, was born.

1971 Eighty-seven countries signed the Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.

1973 First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam took place.

1978  China lifted a ban on works by Aristotle, Shakespeare and Dickens.

1979 Islamic revolution of Iran achieves victory under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

1987 Philippines constitution went into effect.

1990 Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, was released from Victor Verster Prison.

1991 UNPO, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, formed in The Hague.

1997 Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

2006 Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington in the face, neck, and upper torso while hunting quail.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia