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Wednesday, February 24, 2021



Today's Leasing News Headlines

We are not all in the same "boat"
    Placard
What Happens to LEAF Commercial Capital
    after M&T Bank acquires People’s United Bank?
FDIC Insured Institutions Reported Full Year
    Net Income Declined 36.5% to $147.9 Billion
Fueled by Stimulus Checks,
    U.S. Retail Sales Burst into 2021 -Chart
Leasing Industry Ads
    Top Sales Positions Available
Sales Make it Happen by Scott Wheeler, CLFP
    What Does it Take?
Mark Bonanno Promoted to President
    North Mill Equipment Finance
Winter Storms Projected to be Largest
    Insured Loss in Texas History
Driven by Mortgages, U.S. Household Debt Hits New High
    Chart - Debt Balance by Category
Pit Bull Mix (great with children)
    Tonawanda, New York  Adopt-a-Dog
Introducing Leasing News Advisor
    Don Myerson
News Briefs---
M&T joins regional-bank merger rush with
    People’s United Financial with $7.5B All-Stock Deal
Boeing 747 engine catches fire,
    drops parts over the Netherlands, injuring 2
U.S. manufacturers grapple with steel shortages,
    soaring prices
Biden changes federal Paycheck Protection Program
     rules to help small businesses
Four board leaders of Texas grid operator resign
    All of the board directors stepping down live outside of Texas
Tiger Woods in surgery after California car accident,
     rescued through vehicle’s windshield
Marijuana Is Legal in New Jersey
    but Sales Are Months Away

You May have Missed---
Joe Biden poses with 'first dogs'
    Champ and Major in the Oval Office

Broker/Funder/Industry Lists | Features (wrilter's columns)
Top Ten Stories Chosen by Readers | Top Stories last six months

www.leasingcomplaints.com (Be Careful of Doing Business)
www.evergreenleasingnews.org
Leasing News Icon for Android Mobile Device


  Sports Brief----
   California Nuts Brief---
    "Gimme that Wine"
     This Day in History
      SuDoku
       Daily Puzzle
        GasBuddy
         Weather, USA or specific area
          Traffic Live----

######## surrounding the article denotes it is a “press release,” it was not written by Leasing News nor has the information been verified. The source noted. When an article is signed by the writer, it is considered a “byline.” It reflects the opinion and research of the writer.



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What Happens to LEAF Commercial Capital
after M&T Bank acquires People’s United Bank?

Buffalo- based M&T Bank Corp. agreed to buy People’s United Bank Inc. in an all-stock deal valued at about US$7.6 billion, joining a string of U.S. regional banks bulking up in recent months to improve their financial position.

People's United Bank, parent of People’s United Financial, announced on July 19, 2017, "... it has entered into an agreement to acquire LEAF Commercial Capital, Inc.  Based in Philadelphia, PA, LEAF is one of the largest, independent commercial equipment finance companies in the U.S., with approximately $500 million of annual originations."

“Since 2002, LEAF has financed over $5.8 billion for more than 243,000 customers nationwide and provides expertise and equipment finance solutions to a wide variety of vendors and end users.  LEAF has nationwide reach with approximately 250 employees and a call center in Orange County, CA as well as a sales and servicing facility in Moberly, MO.”  

M&T Bank has a large leasing and commercial finance portfolio with a large well-seasoned staff.  What happens when the large banks buy a leasing company, like GE buying Colonial Pacific or CIT buying Direct Capital? 

They bought them for their operation but change it as their staff does it better, they believe.  And the original crew leaves for greener pasture.

Among the recent tie-ups: Huntington Bancshares Inc. agreed to buy TCF Financial Corp. for about $6 billion in December, and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. said in November it would pay $11.6 billion for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s banking operations in the U.S., last year’s largest U.S. banking deal.

What do readers think?



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FDIC Insured Institutions Reported Full Year
Net Income Declined 36.5% to $147.9 Billion

The banking industry reported full-year 2020 net income of $147.9 billion, down $84.9 billion (36.5 percent) from 2019. The decline was primarily attributable to higher provision expenses in the first half of 2020, related to the decline in economic conditions. The average return-on-assets (ROA) ratio declined from 1.29 percent in 2019 to 0.72 percent in 2020.

Loan Balances Declined from the Previous Quarter, Led by Lower Commercial and Industrial Lending Activity: Total loan and lease balances fell slightly by $47.7 billion (0.4 percent) from the previous quarter. The decline was driven by a reduction in commercial and industrial (C&I) lending, which was down $103.8 billion (4.1 percent) from the third quarter 2020. Over the past year, total loan and lease balances increased by $345 billion (3.3 percent – the lowest annual rate since fourth quarter 2013.

Mergers and New Bank Openings Continued in the Fourth Quarter: During the fourth quarter, three new banks opened, 31 institutions were absorbed through mergers, and two banks failed. 5,001 commercial banks and savings institutions filed fourth quarter Call Reports and are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as of December 31, 2020.

Community Banks Reported a 21.2 Percent Increase in Quarterly Net Income Year-Over-Year: Community banks reported annual net income growth of $1.3 billion, a 38.1 percent increase in provision expense, and a narrower net interest margin from a year ago. Increased income from loan sales (up $1.8 billion or 159.1 percent) drove the improvement in quarterly net income and offset the increase in provision expense year-over-year. More than half of the 4,559 FDIC–insured community banks (56.7 percent) reported higher quarterly net income.

The Deposit Insurance Fund’s Reserve Ratio Declined from the Previous Quarter to 1.29 Percent: The Deposit Insurance Fund totaled $117.9 billion in the fourth quarter, up $1.5 billion from the third quarter. The quarterly increase was led by assessment revenue and interest earned on investment securities held by the fund. The reserve ratio declined by 1 basis point from the previous quarter to 1.29 percent solely as a result of strong estimated insured deposit growth.




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After a disappointing holiday season, U.S. consumer spending picked up steam in January 2021, as retail sales jumped 5.3 percent from the December total on a seasonally adjusted basis. According to advance estimates published by the U.S. Census Bureau, retail and food services sales amounted to $568.2 billion in January as consumers flocked to stores to spend their $600 stimulus checks. The January spending spree puts retail sales above January 2020 levels, although it needs to be noted that some retailers are still far off their pre-pandemic trajectory.

Due to the widespread lockdown instituted to contain the spread of COVID-19, retail sales had plunged 14.7 percent in April, following an already unprecedented 8.2 percent drop in March. To put this in perspective, the highest drop prior to March 2020 had occurred in November 2008, when retail sales declined by less than 4 percent at the height of the financial crisis. As the following chart shows, retail sales have very rarely dipped significantly in the past with the financial crisis being the most notable exception of the past three decades.

By Felix Richter, Statista



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Leasing Industry Help Wanted

 





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Sales Make it Happen by Scott Wheeler, CLFP

What Does it Take?

I was recently asked by a young man looking to enter the equipment leasing and finance industry, "What does it take to be a highly successful originator in the industry?" Many active originators also ask this question on a regular basis.

The answer has not changed since I first asked the question of my sales manager over 35 years ago.

  • Make sure that you learn every aspect of the business. You are selling a process and you must know every step to provide superior services to your vendors and end-users.
  • Learn your capabilities. Focus your efforts on selling to vendors and end-users that align with your current capabilities.
  • Build a network of “complementors “ who will help to grow your personal and career goals.
  • Have a plan and execute you plan every day. Origination is more than a job - it is a passion.
  • Expect to make mistakes but learn from each one of them.
  • Think and act boldly - be aggressive.

Being a highly successful originator is not difficult but neither is it easy. It requires dedication, flexibility, and a passion to succeed. The most important factor is to enjoy the process. When done properly, origination in the commercial equipment finance and leasing industry is a highly rewarding and lucrative career.

Visit Scott Wheeler, CLFP
Newly Designed Website:
https://www.wheelerbusinessconsulting.com/

Scott A. Wheeler, CLFP
Wheeler Business Consulting
1314 Marquis Ct.
Fallston, Maryland 21047
Phone: 410 877 0428
Fax: 410 877 8161
Email: scott@wheelerbusinessconsulting.com
Web: www.wheelerbusinessconsulting.com

Sales Makes it Happen articles:
http://www.leasingnews.org/Legacy/index.htm

 

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Mark Bonanno Promoted to President
North Mill Equipment Finance

NORWALK, CT – North Mill Equipment Finance LLC (“North Mill”), a leading independent commercial equipment lessor located in Norwalk, Connecticut, announced today the promotion of Mark Bonanno to President, Chief Operating Officer effective immediately.


David C. Lee, North Mill’s Chairman and CEO, declared, “Mark has been highly influential in helping the business attain record levels of growth since joining the company over four years ago.

“During his tenure, he has implemented protocols that have improved efficiency across the organization. He embodies everything that is important to the success of this company.  Through his leadership and business acumen, North Mill will achieve its long-term goals. I cannot think of anyone more deserving.”

Bonanno, a CPA, joined the company as the firm’s Chief Financial Officer in September 2016 and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in August 2018.  Prior to accepting his role at North Mill, he was Chief Financial Officer at Advantage Funding, a commercial equipment finance company in New York. He spent sixteen years at General Electric in various financial management roles including Finance Manager of the Corporate Initiatives Group, CFO of Xerox Capital Services, and Operational Controller of GE Energy Financial Services.

A graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Bonanno earned his BBA in accounting. He is also a graduate of the GE Management Development Course and a Certified Black Belt, Six Sigma. He and his family reside in Ridgefield, CT.

About North Mill Equipment Finance

Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, North Mill Equipment Finance originates and services small-ticket equipment leases and loans, ranging from $15,000 to $300,000 in value.   A broker-centric private lender, the company handles A – C credit qualities and finances transactions for numerous asset categories including construction, transportation, vocational, health care, manufacturing, printing, and material handling equipment. North Mill is majority owned by an affiliate of Wafra Capital Partners, Inc. (WCP).  For more information, visit www.nmef.com.




[headlines]
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Winter Storms Projected to be Largest
Insured Loss in Texas History

The sub-zero temperatures and winter storms that swept through Texas and surrounding states this past week have left millions without power and/or water, subject to rolling blackouts, fighting frozen and/or bursting pipes, with collapsed roofs, or forced business closures.

Once immediate health and safety is secured, individuals and companies alike will need to shift their focus to mitigating losses and repairing property damage. Based on anticipated claims, ranging from individual automobile accident and homeowner’s insurance claims to corporate business interruption and other property damage-related claims, insurance organizations are already projecting claims that could exceed $20 billion, in aggregate.

While individuals and companies will be dealing with insurance claims long after the Texas heat has returned, actions taken now can have significant impact on potential insurance recovery later.

Source: The National Law Review
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/winter-storms-projected-to-be-largest-insured-loss-texas-history-secure-your-safety


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U.S. household debt climbed to a record high of $14.6 trillion at the end of 2020 as mortgage debt surpassed $10 trillion for the first time. According to the New York Fed’s latest Household Debt and Credit Report, mortgage debt increased by a whopping $183 billion over the past three months alone.

The increase was mainly driven by a record volume of mortgage originations as many households took advantage of historically low mortgage rates to refinance their mortgages and even take out some cash in the process. In fact, refinances accounted for roughly $700 billion of the almost $1.2 trillion in mortgage originations in the fourth quarter with 85 percent of that total coming from customers with super-prime credit scores.

Interestingly, the high volume of refinances from super-prime borrowers has also contributed to historically low delinquency rates. With 96.8 percent of total household debt non-delinquent, the current situation is in sharp contrast to the end of 2009, when just 88 percent of consumer debt was non-delinquent.

By Felix Richter, Statista



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Pitbull Mix (great with children)
Tonawanda, New York  Adopt-a-Dog



Bo Dewey

Male
4 years old
Large
100 lbs.
Moderately Active
Good with dogs: yes
Good with cats: no
Good with Kids: yes
Vaccines up to Date: yes
House Trained: Yes

Meet Bo Dewey – It’s been a whole YEAR since this boy was adopted and unfortunately he is being returned to rescue due to a divorce.
He’s approx. 4 years old, up to date on all vaccines, and neutered.
 
Bo is a big, goofy, cuddly boy who loves to play and make everyone laugh. He was very appropriate with his human foster sisters and takes great correction from their female dog while he was in foster.
 
Bo is house trained and crate trained. A home with a fenced in yard and experience with large dogs is preferred as he’s a BIG, strong boy. Bo does not do well with cats or animals smaller than him, they confuse him. He will also need his training to be continued which is going great! He’s learning to focus and not be so excitable all the time. If anyone is interested, we have videos of Bo playing the foster’s children. He loves being outside, whether it’s a baby pool or running in the snow.

Queen City Pitties Animal Rescue, Inc.
Non-profit organization in Tonawanda, New York
queencities.com

Contact Us:
https://queencitypitties.com/contact-us/

Application:
https://queencitypitties.com/adoption-application/


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Leasing News Advisor
Don Myerson

Don Myerson
President
BSB Leasing, Inc.
7921 Southpark Plaza, Suite 208
Littleton, Colorado 80120
dmyerson@bsbleasing.com
800-945-3372 Ext. 336

Don Myerson is the President and founder of BSB Leasing, Inc., and brings over 37 years of industry experience. BSB Leasing, Inc. headquartered in Denver, Colorado was started in 1982 as a broker shop. It was acquired by UniCapital Corporation in 1998 and re-acquired by Myerson and his management team in 2000.

In addition to his role at BSB Leasing, Inc. Mr. Myerson is a Managing Member and co-founder of Mintaka Financial, LLC, a small ticket funding source based in Gig Harbor, Washington, a co­founder and Board Member for Orion First Financial, LLC., a loan and leasing servicing company which provides underwriting, contract servicing and collection services to banks and independent financial institutions.

Don and his wife Dolly and 4 kids split their time between the island of Kauai and the mountains of Colorado. Passions include family travel, and camping and hiking all over the world.

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News Briefs---

M&T joins regional-bank merger rush with
    People’s United Financial with $7.5B All-Stock Deal
https://www.themiddlemarket.com/news-analysis/mt-joins-regionalba-nk-merger-rush-with-7-6b-peoples-united-deal

Boeing 747 engine catches fire,
    drops parts over the Netherlands, injuring 2
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-747-engine-catches-fire-drops-parts-over-the-netherlands-injuring-2/

U.S. manufacturers grapple with steel shortages,
    soaring prices
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-steel-insight/u-s-manufacturers-grapple-with-steel-shortages-soaring-prices-idUSKBN2AN0YQ

Biden changes federal Paycheck Protection Program
     rules to help small businesses
https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/biden-changes-federal-paycheck-protection-program-rules-to-help-small-busin/

Four board leaders of Texas grid operator resign
    All of the board directors stepping down live outside of Texas
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/02/23/four-board-leaders-of-texas-grid-operator-resign/

Tiger Woods ‘lucky to be alive’ after serious
    rollover crash leaves him with leg injuries
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-23/tiger-woods-injured-after-car-accident-la

 

 

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You May Have Missed---

Joe Biden poses with 'first dogs'
    Champ and Major in the Oval Office
https://www.today.com/pets/president-joe-biden-poses-his-dogs-oval-office-t209733

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Sports Briefs---

Alex Smith on His Comeback:
    “I Never Thought it Would Happen”
https://www.gq.com/story/alex-smith-nfl-comeback-player-of-the-year

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California Nuts Briefs---

State lawmakers approve $600 stimulus payments
   for 5.7M Californians
https://abc7.com/covid-relief-california-covid-19-coronavirus-gov-gavin-newsom/10362498/

Worrisome coronavirus variant now linked
    to half of cases in California
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/02/22/worrisome-coronavirus-variant-now-linked-to-half-of-cases-in-california/

Santa Clara County to allow prep football, other outdoor sports,
    following California’s lifting of COVID-19 restrictions
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/02/22/santa-clara-county-to-allow-prep-football-other-outdoor-sports-following-californias-lifting-of-covid-19-restrictions/

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and Beat icon, dead at 101
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/02/23/lawrence-ferlinghetti-poet-and-beat-icon-dead-at-101/


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“Gimme that Wine”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJnQoi8DSE8

John Fox, who ran the world’s largest wine Ponzi scheme
     from his Berkeley store, gets out of prison
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2021/02/22/john-fox-berkeley-caonzi-scheme-gets-out-of-prison

Why these California North Coast vintners
    are green-lighting projects despite economic uncertainty
https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/why-these-california-north-coast-vintners-are-green-lighting-projects-despi/

Discovering the Origin of Zinfandel
https://daily.sevenfifty.com/discovering-the-origin-of-zinfandel/

Free Wine App
https://www.nataliemaclean.com/mobileapp/

Wine Prices by vintage
http://www.winezap.com
http://www.wine-searcher.com/

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This Day in History

     1761 - James Otis voices opposition to English colonial rule in a speech before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. In 1761, the merchants of Boston hired attorney James Otis to give a speech against the writs of assistance, a general warrant which was issued for the life of the sovereign to search "any House, shop, Cellar, Warehouse or Room or other Place.” Customs officers could ask anyone to help with the writ, which was the reason for its name. Young attorney John Adams, who later became the second President of the United States, heard the speech, and was so inspired by it that he wrote a provision for the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights based on the arguments Mr. Otis made. The language later formed the basic language of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The battle against the writs of assistance, and the Otis speech, was one of the major opening chapters in the American colonists' struggles against tax tyranny that led to the American Revolution. The speech generated much excitement.
    1786 - Charles Cornwallis, whose armies had surrendered to US at Yorktown, was appointed Governor-General of India.
    1803 – In Marbury v. Madison, the United States Supreme Court declared a federal law unconstitutional for the first time. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the opinion for the court. He held that it was the duty of the judicial branch to determine what the law is. His opinion established the power of judicial review—that is, the court's authority to declare laws unconstitutional.
http://www.stanley2002.org/marbury.htm
http://www.jmu.edu/madison/marbury/background.htm
    1811 - Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne (d. 1893), sixth Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church and a founder of Ohio's Wilberforce University, was born to free black parents in Charleston, South Carolina. Named for English abolitionist Lord William Wilberforce, Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio was the first black-owned college in the United States. Payne was named the university's president in 1863, becoming the nation's first black college president.
http://www.amecnet.org/payne.htm
http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/payne70/frontis.html
    1831 - The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, was proclaimed, having been signed on September 27, 1830. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede about 11 million acres in exchange for about 15 million acres in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
    1836 - Winslow Homer (d. 1920) was born at Boston.  American artist noted for the realism of his work, from the Civil War reportage to the highly regarded rugged outdoor scenes of hunting and fishing.
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/homer.html
    1836 - Texan Colonel William Travis sends a desperate plea for help for the besieged defenders of the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas, with the famous last words, "Victory or Death." On March 6, the Alamo, where 182 Texans were garrisoned, was captured by the Mexican leader Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who had led over 3000 troops across the Rio Grande. Every Texan except a mother, a child, and a servant was killed. “Remember the Alamo” became a battle cry that brought Texans and friends from neighboring states together that eventually formed the Republic of Texas. The movie in the 1950's “Davey Crockett,” would bring the event to worldwide attention as he died in the Alamo along with Colonel Travis, making the “Bowie” knife and coonskin cap famous (as a point of history, Crockett never wore a coonskin cap. He was a former legislator and well-educated man for his time, not a hick or country bumpkin as the role Fess Parker made famous).
    1852 - The Susquehanna River ice bridge at Havre de Grace, Maryland began to break up after 40 days of use. A total of 1738 loaded freight cars were hauled along the rails laid on the ice.
    1857 - Los Angeles Vineyard Society organized by two men in San Francisco named Charles Kohler and James Frohling who were looking for an area to establish a vineyard colony. Kohler and Frohling formed the Society with a group of German immigrants. George Hansen, a Los Angeles surveyor, was selected to find an ideal site for their planned community. He found it on the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana, which was then in Los Angeles County. Plans were formed for the new town, which was named "Anaheim," but known to their Spanish-speaking neighbors as "Campo Aleman." Although the first settlers arrived in town in 1859, it was not until 1870 that the city was first organized as a municipality.
http://www.anaheim.net/depts_servc/police/history/intro.htm
    1863 - Arizona was recognized as a US territory.  It was first organized as a Confederate territory on Feb. 14, 1862.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb24.html
    1864 - Battle of Tunnel Hill, GA (Buzzard's Roost). This started as a skirmish on February 22 but grew into a battle that lasted until February 25.  This was the second of four major Civil War battles here as the location includes a nearby 1,497 feet long railroad tunnel through Chetoogeta Mountain.  The railroad tunnel was the first to be completed south of the Mason-Dixon Line. 
http://bachelorsgrove.com/archive/obituaries
/info/jamfuller/stories/index4.html

http://www.northga.net/whitfield/tunnel.html
http://roadsidegeorgia.com/city/tunnelhill.html
http://www.ganet.org/civilwar/georgia.html#anchor221032
    1867 - In a showdown over reconstruction policy following the Civil War, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson. During the two years following the end of the war, the Republican-controlled Congress had sought to severely punish the South. Congress passed the Reconstruction Act that divided the South into five military districts headed by officers who were to take their orders from General Grant, the head of the army, instead of from President Johnson. In addition, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which required Senate approval before Johnson could remove any official whose appointment was originally approved by the Senate. Johnson vetoed this act but the veto was overridden by Congress. To test the constitutionality of the act, Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, triggering the impeachment vote. While Johnson was not pro civil rights, he was pro South.  In fact, one of his last acts of office in December was to pardon Jefferson Davis, who was on trial for treason. Stanton was very much anti-South and harbored many ill feelings, basically because of his blundering of military assignments to “society” generals. On Mar 5, 1868, the Senate convened as a court to hear the charges against the President. The Senate vote of 35—19 fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed for impeachment. Thus the South became Dixie Democrats until modern times. The 1868 presidential election was close, with Ulysses S. Grant's popular majority a scant 306,000 out of 5,717,500 votes, although the electoral vote was 214 Grant to 80 for Republican Horatio Seymour. The black vote, which totaled over 700,000, decided the election for Grant. In 1872, Grant beat Republican Candidate Horace Greely 3,597,132 to 2,384,124.  The electoral vote was 286 to 66. History changed and the Democratic Dixiecrats destroyed reconstruction and controlled the house with an inside deal to give. The election had been thrown back to Congress before, such as the one between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson. This was the first time the nation faced a dispute over the results of a presidential election. A candidate needed 185 electoral votes to win and Samuel J. Tilden the Democratic candidate, clearly had 184. In dispute were the 19 electoral votes of three states still under carpetbag rule---Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina---plus one vote in Oregon. In Congress, both parties agreed on January 29, 1877 to establish an electoral commission to decide the issue. The commission, with five members from each house of Congress, and five members from the Supreme Court, was made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats. All the commission's decisions were to fall along party lines. On March 2, Congress accepted the commission's decision, which awarded all the disputed votes to the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, who thus received 185 electoral votes to Tilden's 184. The Republicans were accused of offering southern Democrats economic favors for their region if they supported Hayes's claim. In any event, the new president showed a conciliatory attitude toward the South: all the programs in place that had elected blacks to office, given them property and protection were removed, and the last federal troops were withdrawn and there was no further effort to protect the rights of blacks. Reconstruction was over.
    1868 - First US parade with floats (Mardi Gras-Mobile AL)
http://www.fabuloustravel.com/usa/mardigras/almardigras.html
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/6483/mg1.html
http://www.mglinks.com/mg101.htm
http://www.mglinks.com/
    1874 – Birthday of Honus Wagner (d. 1955), born Johannes Peter Wagner in Chartiers (now Carnegie), PA.  He played 21 seasons in the Majors from 1897 to 1917, almost entirely for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wagner won eight batting titles, tied for the most in National League history with Tony Gwinn. He also led the league in slugging six times, and in stolen bases five times. Wagner was nicknamed "The Flying Dutchman" due to his superb speed and German heritage ("Dutch" in this instance being an alteration of "Deutsch").  In 1936, the Baseball Hall of Fame inducted Wagner as one of the five charter members. He received the second-highest vote total, behind Ty Cobb and tied with Babe Ruth.  Although Cobb is frequently cited as the greatest player of the dead-ball era, some contemporaries regarded Wagner as the better all-around player, and most baseball historians consider Wagner to be the greatest shortstop ever. Cobb himself called Wagner "maybe the greatest star ever to take the diamond."
    1885 - Birthday of Chester Nimitz (d. 1966), Fredericksburg, TX.  Admiral who was Commander-in-
Chief, US Pacific Fleet (CinCPac), for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA), for U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II.  Nimitz signed for the United States when Japan formally surrendered on board the USS Missouri. On October 5, 1945, which had been officially designated as "Nimitz Day" in Washington, DC, Admiral Nimitz was personally presented a Gold Star for the third award of the Distinguished Service Meal by President Harry Truman "for exceptionally meritorious service as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, from June 1944 to August 1945...."
    1891 - The term "honky tonk" introduced, appearing in an Oklahoma paper, The Daily Ardorite, which reports "the honk-a-tonk last night was well attended." The word is most likely a Creole derivative but a definitive source could not be found. “Honkey” or "Honkie" might be its original source or a “spin-off.”
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/199703/1997.03.05.06.html
http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/13/messages/216.html
    1895 – Revolution broke out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban War of Independence, that ended with the Spanish-American War in 1898.
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/1895/chronology.htm
http://www.autentico.org/oa09313.html
http://www.historyofcuba.com/cuba.htm
    1897 - Emile Berliner took out a Canadian patent on his gramophone talking machine. Manufacturing facilities were set up in Montreal. Berliner had built a crude model of his machine ten years earlier at his home laboratory in Washington, DC, and he applied for a US patent on it on September 26th, 1887. Today the terms "gramophone" and "phonograph" mean the same thing. But in Berliner's day this was not so. "Gramophone" referred to a talking machine employing lateral-cut discs, while the phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison, used vertical-cut cylinders. Berliner's discs eventually made Edison's cylinders obsolete. Berliner also invented the microphone, which we still use today.
http://www.invention.org/electronic-music/berliner.html
    1905 - The temperature at Valley Head, Alabama fell to 18 degrees below zero. This was the coldest temperature ever recorded in Alabama until January 30, 1966 when it reached -27 at New Market.
    1909 - The Hudson Motor Car Company, founded by Joseph Hudson, in Detroit, Michigan, was incorporated. Hudson is perhaps most famous for its impact on NASCAR racing, which it accomplished thanks to a revolutionary design innovation.  Hudson's strong, light-weight bodies, combined with its high-torque inline six-cylinder engine technology, made the company's 1951–54 Hornet an auto-racing champion, dominating NASCAR in 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1954.  Some NASCAR records set by Hudson in the 1950s (e.g. consecutive wins in one racing season) still stand even today.  The company made Hudson, Essex and Triplane brands from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors (AMC). The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was discontinued.
    1910 - Arranger/Pianist Clyde Hart (d. 1945) born Baltimore, MD.
http://www.centrohd.com/biogra/h1/clyde_hart_b.htm
(Ben Webster talks about Clyde Hart:
http://www.jazzprofessional.com/interviews/BenWebster.htm
http://www.umkc.edu/lib/spec-col/ww2/1939/jive_txt.htm
(CD had Clyde Hart All-stars with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie)
http://www.geocities.com/ladenso1/RBird/RepliestoKLONBird3_2_.html
Una Mae Carlise Orchestra
http://www.welwyn11.freeserve.co.uk/LY_smallgps.htm
    1912 - Hadassah: Twelve members of the Daughters of Zion Study Circle met at New York City under the leadership of Nerietta Szoid. A constitution was drafted to expand the study group into a national organization called Hadassah (Hebrew for “myrtle” and the biblical name of Queen Esther) to foster Jewish education in America and to create public health nursing and nurses training in Palestine. Hadassah is now the largest women's volunteer organization in the US with 1,500 chapters rooted in health care delivery, education and vocational training, children's villages and services and land reclamation in Israel.
    1912 - Labor activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn heads "Bread & Roses" Lawrence Textile Strike of 20,000 women in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Police attack 150 children and their parents at the town railroad station. Many strikers are sending their kids to safe homes with friendly families in other cities. The exodus has generated so much publicity that Lawrence authorities have resolved to crush it. They forced 35 women and their children into patrol wagons. After charging the women with neglect and handing jail sentences and fines to the organizers, the town fathers send 10 of the kids to the Lawrence poor farm. This prompts only more publicity, forcing Congress to investigate the strike. Sixteen children will testify, describing the poverty that led them to leave school and take jobs in the mill. The American Woolen Company will have no choice but to yield to the strikers' demands.
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5202/rebelgirl.html
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45b/index-a.html
    1921 - Abe Vigoda (d. 2016) was born in Brooklyn.  He was known for a number of roles, especially his portrayals of Salvatore Tessio in “The Godfather” and Detective Sgt. Phil Fish on the sitcom “Barney Miller” from 1975 to 1977 and its spinoff show “Fish” from 1977 to 1978.  
http://www.zxcproductions.com/web/Abe/abe.html
http://www.tvland.com/shows/barneymiller/actor1.jhtml
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800022099&cf=biog&intl=us
    1927 - West Coast bassist Ralph Pena (d. 1969) was born in Jarbridge, NV. He played with Pete Jolly and was also popular at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California, where we saw him play often with many jazz groups.
http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/bio
/0,,478135,00.html?artist=Ralph+Pena

    1928 - In its first show to feature a Black artist, the New Gallery of New York exhibits works of Archibald Motley.
    1930 - Ted Lewis records, "On the Sunny Side of the Street"
    1932 - Composer Michel Legrand (d. 2019) born Paris, France
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Legrand,+Michel
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005YW0W/inktomi-musicasin-20/
102-1682336-8966565

    1933 - Tenor Sax David “Fathead” Newman (d. 2009) Birthday
http://www.davidfatheadnewman.com/
http://www.interneted.com/Reviewpages/newmandaviddaveyblue.htm
http://www.utdallas.edu/dept/ah/fathead/david_fathead.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000333E/avsearch-df1-9-20/
102-1682336-8966565

    1936 - Vermont and New Hampshire received brown snow due to dust from storms in the Great Plains Region. A muddy rain fell across parts of northern New York State. (24th-25th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
    1938 – Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, was born in Portland, OR.  In November, 2015, Forbes named Knight the 15th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $28.1 billion.  He is also the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika.  A graduate of the University of Oregon and Stanford Graduate School of Business, he has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to both schools; Knight gave the largest donation in history at the time to Stanford's business school in 2006. A native Oregonian, he ran track under coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon, with whom he would co-found Nike.
    1940 - On Decca Records, Frances Langford recorded "When You Wish Upon a Star" during a session held in Los Angeles, California. Many artists have recorded that song, including Linda Ronstadt with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra in the early 1980s. The song can also be heard in the opening credits of any Disney movie, video or television program.
    1941 - '60s pop singer Joanie Sommers was born Joan Drost in Buffalo, NY.  Once billed as "The Voice of the Sixties", and associated with top-notch arrangers, song-writers and producers, Sommers' popular reputation became closely tied to her biggest, yet most uncharacteristic, hit song "Johnny Get Angry," in 1962, which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
http://www.grillecloth.com/sommers/sommers.html
http://www.homestead.com/joaniesommers/
    1942 - Harry James records “Trumpet Blues and Cantabile” (Col. 36549)
    1942 - The Army, mistaking a weather balloon that strayed over Los Angeles for a Japanese bomber, unleashes a saturation antiaircraft barrage. Three civilians are trampled to death in the attending panic, and dozens more injured by falling shrapnel. The Japanese later in the war deployed large balloons with bombs, most landed in Oregon and Northern California, causing damage, but was kept out of the news, and the Japanese thinking they were not effective, ended the program. The press was told not to print any stories as if the Japanese learned how effective and inexpensive it was for them to release balloons with bombs in the jet stream, it may have destroyed many cities on the West Coast.
    1943 – “The Human Comedy,” a novel written by William Saroyan, was published on this date in New York.
http://www.housecollectibles.com/highschool
/catalog/display.pperl?0440339332

http://www.cilicia.com/armo22_william_saroyan_3.html
    1943 - George Harrison (d. 2001) was born in Liverpool, England.  As a member of The Beatles, he achieved international fame as the lead guitarist.  In June, 1965, Harrison and the other Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire.  They received their insignia from Queen Elizabeth at an investiture at Buckingham Palace.  In 1971, the Beatles received an Academy Award for the best Original Song Score for the film “Let It Be.”   In December, 1992, he became the first recipient of the Billboard Century Award, an honor presented to music artists for significant bodies of work.  Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."  In 2004, Harrison was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist and into the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame in 2006 for the Concert for Bangladesh.  On 14 April 2009, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce awarded Harrison a star on the Walk of Fame in front of the Capitol records Building. Among his songs:  “My Sweet Lord,” “Isn't It a Pity,” “What is Life?,” “All Those Years Ago.”  As an actor: “A Hard Day's Night,” “Help!,” “The Beatles,” “Magical Mystery Tour,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Let It Be,” “The Concert for Bangladesh,” “Shanghai Surprise,” “You Can't Do That!,” “The Making of ‘A Hard Day's Night'.” Harrison believed for most of his life his birthday was Feb 25 but a family birth record has his birth at near 11:50 p.m. Feb 24.
    1944 - "Merrill's Marauders" hit Burma. The Marauders' mission began with a 1,000-mile walk through dense jungle, without artillery support, consisting of five major and 30 minor engagements with a far more numerous Japanese enemy. They had to carry their supplies on their backs and on pack mules and were resupplied only with airdrops in the middle of the jungle. Merrill's Marauders succeeded in maneuvering behind Japanese forces to cause the disruptions necessary to throw the enemy into confusion. They were so successful, the Marauders managed even to capture the Myitkyina Airfield in northern Burma.
    1947 - Bass player Bob Magnusson born New York City, NY,
http://www.theiceberg.com/artist/24649/bob_magnusson/
http://www.emusic.com/cd/10600/10600220.html?fref=148694
    1948 – In a trade that would portend significantly for the Yankees, they acquired lefty Eddie Lopat for three players to the Chicago White Sox.  Lopat was a key starter of the pitching staff that would take the Yanks to the record five consecutive World Series titles, 1949-53, a record still unequalled in Major League Baseball history.
    1951 - Top Hits
“If” - Perry Como
“My Heart Cries for You” - Guy Mitchell
“Tennessee Waltz” - Patti Page
“There's Been a Change in Me” - Eddy Arnold
    1955 – President Dwight Eisenhower met with newspaper publisher Roy Howard and expressed his resistance under pressure to commit American troops to Vietnam. The conversation was recorded on a dictabelt machine that Eisenhower had secretly installed in the President’s office.
    1955 - Steven Jobs (d. 2011), co-founder of Apple Computer, was born Los Altos, CA. Jobs started out selling his friend Stephen Wozniak's computers door-to-door at electronic hobbyist shops. By 1979, Apple Computer had become the fastest growing company in history, worth more than $1 billion. That year, Jobs led a team of several Apple developers, working on a new project called Lisa, on a visit to Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where the team saw the Alto, an early computer with a graphical user interface using icons, a mouse, and built-in networking capacity. Both the Lisa and the Macintosh adopted key elements of the Alto. Jobs, whose impulsive personal style irritated some of Apple's key managers, was forced to leave Apple in 1985. He formed NeXT Inc., became president of Pixar animation studios, and returned to Apple in 1997 as acting president. He turned both ventures into giant money-making companies, winning awards, dominating the music market with the iPod.  The company changed their name to Apple Inc. to reflect their diversification.  Jobs is credited with the company's tremendous success. Under his direction the company grew from computers to portable music players, portable wireless telephones, and now the IPAD, which revolutionized the computer industry as Jobs did to both the music industry and telephone/web industry. The Apple computer is considered the finest by architects, graphic designers, and web designers, as well as other aficionados. Jobs was also the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios until it was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2006. Jobs was the Walt Disney Company's largest individual shareholder and a member of its Board of Directors.  Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in 2003 and died of respiratory arrest related to the tumor
    1956 - Need an adult to dance in Cleveland: Now the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland invoked a 1931 law barring people under 18 from dancing publicly without an adult guardian.
    1959 - Top Hits
“Stagger Lee” - Lloyd Price
“Donna” - Ritchie Valens
“The All American Boy” - Bill Parsons
“Don't Take Your Guns to Town” - Johnny Cash
    1963 - The Rolling Stones take over as the Sunday house band at the Station Hotel, near London. They are paid £24 ($67) to entertain a crowd of 66 people.
    1966 – USC pitcher Tom Seaver was signed by the Braves. The deal will later be voided and the USC stand-out will be selected by the New York Mets in a special draft.  Seaver went on to a Hall of Fame career and remains the best player ever for the Mets.
    1967 - WILBANKS, HILLIARD A., Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Air Force, 21st. Tactical Air Support Squadron, Nha Trang AFB, RVN. Place and date: Near Dalat, Republic of Vietnam, 24 February 1967. Entered service at: Atlanta, Ga. Born: 26 July 1933, Cornelia, Ga. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. As a forward air controller Capt. Wilbanks was pilot of an unarmed, light aircraft flying visual reconnaissance ahead of a South Vietnam Army Ranger Battalion. His intensive search revealed a well-concealed and numerically superior hostile force poised to ambush the advancing rangers. The Viet Cong, realizing that Capt. Wilbanks' discovery had compromised their position and ability to launch a surprise attack, immediately fired on the small aircraft with all available firepower. The enemy then began advancing against the exposed forward elements of the ranger force which were pinned down by devastating fire. Capt. Wilbanks recognized that close support aircraft could not arrive in time to enable the rangers to withstand the advancing enemy, onslaught. With full knowledge of the limitations of his unarmed, unarmored, light reconnaissance aircraft, and the great danger imposed by the enemy's vast firepower, he unhesitatingly assumed a covering, close support role. Flying through a hail of withering fire at treetop level, Capt. Wilbanks passed directly over the advancing enemy and inflicted many casualties by firing his rifle out of the side window of his aircraft. Despite increasingly intense antiaircraft fire, Capt. Wilbanks continued to completely disregard his own safety and made repeated low passes over the enemy to divert their fire away from the rangers. His daring tactics successfully interrupted the enemy advance, allowing the rangers to withdraw to safety from their perilous position. During his final courageous attack to protect the withdrawing forces, Capt. Wilbanks was mortally wounded and his bullet-riddled aircraft crashed between the opposing forces. Capt. Wilbanks' magnificent action saved numerous friendly personnel from certain injury or death. His unparalleled concern for his fellow man and his extraordinary heroism were in the highest traditions of the military service, and have reflected great credit upon himself and the U.S. Air Force.
    1967 - Top Hits
“Kind of a Drag” - The Buckinghams
“Love is Here and Now You're Gone” - The Supremes
“The Beat Goes On” - Sonny & Cher
“Where Does the Good Times Go” - Buck Owens
    1969 - LEVITOW, JOHN L.,  Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Air Force, 3d Special Operations Squadron. Place and date: Long Binh Army post, Republic of Vietnam, 24 February 1969. Entered service at: New Haven, Conn. Born: 1 November 1945, Hartford, Conn. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Levitow (then A1c.), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism while assigned as a loadmaster aboard an AC-47 aircraft flying a night mission in support of Long Binh Army post. Sgt. Levitow's aircraft was struck by a hostile mortar round. The resulting explosion ripped a hole 2 feet in diameter through the wing and fragments made over 3,500 holes in the fuselage. All occupants of the cargo compartment were wounded and helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage. The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember who had been launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged in combat. Sgt. Levitow, though stunned by the concussion of the blast and suffering from over 40 fragment wounds in the back and legs, staggered to his feet and turned to assist the man nearest to him who had been knocked down and was bleeding heavily. As he was moving his wounded comrade forward and away from the opened cargo compartment door, he saw the smoking flare ahead of him in the aisle. Realizing the danger involved and completely disregarding his own wounds, Sgt. Levitow started toward the burning flare. The aircraft was partially out of control and the flare was rolling wildly from side to side. Sgt. Levitow struggled forward despite the loss of blood from his many wounds and the partial loss of feeling in his right leg. Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. Hugging the deadly device to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door. At that instant the flare separated and ignited in the air, but clear of the aircraft. Sgt. Levitow, by his selfless and heroic actions, saved the aircraft and its entire crew from certain death and destruction. Sgt. Levitow's gallantry, his profound concern for his fellowmen, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.
    1969 - Johnny Cash recorded his second live prison performance, this one at San Quentin, Marin County, California. It followed a concert the previous year at Folsom Prison. The LP "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" topped the Billboard pop and country charts. It also contained the hit single "A Boy Named Sue."
http://www.canoe.ca/JamAlbumsC/cash_johnny_sanquentin.html
    1970 – Former Niners and Eagles QB Jeff Garcia was born Gilroy, CA.
    1970 - Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" hits #1
    1971 - Janis Joplin's "Pearl" goes gold.
    1972 - Birthday of Manon Rheaume, Beauport, Quebec.  She is the first woman to play in a professional hockey game. Rheaume was goaltender when Canada won the 1992 and 1994 world championships as a member of Canada's women's national team and was MVP of both tournaments. In 1986, she goaled the national team to the Olympic silver. "In 1992, Rheaume made sports history by appearing in an NHL exhibition game for the Tampa Bay Lightning, thus becoming the first female to play in a major professional sport. She continued her pro hockey career with various men's minor league teams but in 1995, she turned to professional roller hockey playing for the New Jersey Rock 'n Rollers." Small for her position, she is 5' 6" with a playing weight of 130 lbs.
    1973 - With Roger McGuinn remaining the only original member, The Byrds made their final live appearance when they played at The Capitol Theatre, in Passaic, New Jersey. McGuinn has used the Internet to continue the folk music tradition since November 1995 by recording a different folk song each month on his Folk Den site.
    1973 - Roberta Flack's “Killing Me Softly With His Song” jumped to Number 1 on Billboard's hit record charts, and remained there for 5 weeks. It was rumored that the subject of her song was folk singer Don McLean. Actually, it was not.  Rather, the original singer, Lori Leiberman, was “inspired” by a McLean song and got a songwriter, Norman Gabriel, to make a few changes.
http://www.superseventies.com/1973_9singles.html
    1975 - Top Hits
“Pick Up the Pieces” - AWB
“Best of My Love” - The Eagles
“Some Kind of Wonderful” - Grand Funk
“I Care” - Tom T. Hall
    1976 - The Eagles "Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)" became the first LP in the US to be certified platinum with two-million copies sold.  It reached number one on the US Billboard 200, where it stayed for five weeks. The album has the distinction of being the first album to receive the RIAA Platinum certification, which was introduced in 1976 to recognize albums that shipped one million copies in the United States. It was ranked number four on the Billboard year-end album chart of 1976 and has spent a total of 239 weeks on the Billboard 200 as of August 2018.  It was the best-selling album of the 20th century in the United States and it stayed the best-selling album in the U.S. until it was surpassed by Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” after the artist's death in 2009.  In August 2018, it regained the title of the best-selling album in the U.S. In 2017, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."
    1976 - At the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Paul Simon picks up Best Pop Vocal and Best Album awards for “Still Crazy After All These Years,” leading him to famously remark, in his acceptance speech, "I'd like to thank Stevie Wonder for not releasing an album this year."
    1976 - Rhythm Heritage's "Theme From S.W.A.T." hits #1
    1978 - Barry Manilow shared the stage with Ray Charles during The Second Barry Manilow Special, dueting on "It's a Miracle." Manilow had just enjoyed a Top Ten hit with "Looks Like We Made It" and would follow with "Can't Smile Without You," "Even Now," "Copacabana" and "Ready to Take a Chance Again" during the next few months.
    1978 - The Pointer Sisters, now down to a trio after Bonnie Pointer had left for a solo career, enjoy their biggest US hit when the Bruce Springsteen written "Fire" tops out at Billboard's #2.
    1979 - The Jefferson Starship releases the greatest hits LP "Gold" which eventually makes the top-20 on Billboard's LP chart.
    1980 - Hockey Teams Wins Gold: Two days after defeating the Soviet Union 4-3, the US hockey team won the gold medal at the XIII Winter Olympic Games by beating Finland, 4-2.
    1981 - School Headmistress and Socialite Jean Harris is convicted of murdering "The Scarsdale Diet" doctor, Herman Tarnower. Harris and Tarnower had been a couple since they met in 1966. However, Tarnower was a notorious womanizer who never followed through on his vague promises to marry the 56-year-old Harris. In the late 1970s, Harris discovered that Tarnower was having an affair with a younger woman. Nonetheless, she assisted him in writing and editing “The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet,” which became a surprise sensation, earning Tarnower wealth and fame. Harris later claimed that she went there with suicidal intentions. However, the fact that Tarnower was shot four times seemed to belie her defense. Rather than maintain that she had killed in the heat of the moment, which would have dealt a manslaughter conviction, Harris insisted that the shooting was an accident. Her gamble (or insistence on principle) failed when the jury convicted her of murder and gave her a life sentence. Harris was a model prisoner who used every opportunity to bring attention to the plight of women prisoners. She wrote the well-received “They Always Call Us Ladies” in 1988, and finally won parole in 1993.
    1981 - Boston Celtics begin 18 NBA game win streak 
http://www.pataky.net/NBAFinals.asp
http://sporting.oneofakindantiques.com/
2085_boston_celtics_basketball_from
_1980_to_1981_4.htm

http://members.tripod.com/opey3/celtics.html
    1982 - Wayne Gretzky, 21-year-old center for the Edmonton Oilers, scored his 77th goal of the season against the Buffalo Sabres to break Phil Esposito's single-season goal-scoring record. With Esposito, who had scored 76 goals in the 1970-71 season, in attendance, Gretzky stole the puck and broke a 3-3 tie with seven minutes to play. He added two more goals in the game's final two minutes and finished the season with 92 goals.
    1982 - The 1981 Grammy Award winners are announced. Kim Carnes wins Record and Song of the Year with "Bette Davis Eyes," while John Lennon and Yoko Ono win Album of the Year with "Double Fantasy."
    1983 – Dow Jones average for the first time closed above the 1100 mark, after the stock market moved 24.87 points to close at 1121.81. In 1972, the 1100 plateau had been reached, but a rally could not keep the benchmark high at that point until the end of the trading day.
    1983 - Top Hits
“Baby, Come to Me” - Patti Austin with James Ingram
“Shame on the Moon” - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
“Stray Cat Strut” - Stray Cats
“Faking Love” - T.G. Sheppard & Karen Brooks
    1983 - A special commission of Congress released a report that condemned the internment of Japanese during World War II. It was silent on the same treatment of Italians and Germans.
    1985 - Quarterback Doug Flutie played his first professional game, leading the New Jersey Generals against Birmingham, to a 38-28 loss. The former Boston College star had a rough start in his USFL debut but completed 12 of 18 passes in the game's fourth quarter. I bring this up as he is my double cousin on my mother's side (son of my mother's sister's son.)
http://www.dougflutiejrfoundation.org/
http://members.aol.com/Argonuter/
    1985 - Yul Brynner reprised his "The King and I" role, setting an all-time box office weekly receipt record when the show took in $520,920.
    1987 - Not a Welk Tune: A spokeswoman for bandleader Lawrence Welk said some Welk fans who bought his "Polka Party" compact disc ended up with the punk rock soundtrack to the movie "Sid and Nancy." The Welk Enterprises office in Los Angeles fielded several telephone calls from upset fans. The CD's apparently were mislabeled at the factory in Japan.
    1987 - The Los Angeles Lakers' Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made his first three-point shot. At this date, the leading scorer in NBA history had reached 36,000 points, but until now, Kareem never scored over two at a time.
    1987 - The 1986 Grammys are awarded: Paul Simon's "Graceland" wins Best Album; Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" wins Best Record and Bruce Hornsby and the Range win Best New Artist.
    1987 - The massive winter storm continued to pound the western US in southern California.  Big Bear was blanketed with 17 inches of snow and Lake Hughes reported 4 inches in one hour. Snow pellets whitened coastal areas of Orange and San Diego counties with 3 inches falling at Huntington Beach. Thunderstorms producing hail and waterspouts also occurred. In Colorado, Purgatory was buried under 62 inches of snow over a 4-day period and Colorado Springs had 14.8 inches in 24 hours to set a 24 hour snowfall record for February.
    1988 - Strong winds produced snow squalls in the Great Lakes Region which created "white-out" conditions in eastern Upper Michigan. Squalls produced up to 14 inches of snow in Geauga County of northeastern Ohio.
    1988 - Matt Nykanen of Finland, having already finished first in the 70-and 90-meter ski jumping events, won an unprecedented third gold medal in Nordic skiing when the Finnish team won the new 90-meter team jumping competition.
    1989 - Jerry Jones announced the he had reached an agreement to buy the Dallas Cowboys from H.R. “Bum” Bright and that he had replaced Tom Landry, the only head coach in Dallas history, with University of Miami coach and former University of Arkansas teammate, Jimmy Johnson.  Johnson coached the Cowboys from 1989 through 1993. He is one of only six men in NFL history to coach consecutive Super Bowl winners, winning in 1992 and 1993.  1995 was the last appearance by the Cowboys in the Super Bowl, among the longest such streak in NFL history. 
    1989 - A total of thirty-three cities in the eastern U.S. reported new record low temperatures for the date, and an Atlantic coast storm spread heavy snow from Georgia to southern New England. Snowfall totals in New Jersey ranged up to 24 inches in Cape May County, with 19 inches reported at Atlantic City. Totals in North Carolina ranged up to 18 inches in Gates County, and winds along the coast of North Carolina gusted to 70 mph at Duck Pier. Strong winds gusting to 52 mph created blizzard conditions at Chatham, MA.
    1989 – United flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, ripped open during flight, blowing nine passengers out of the business-class section.
    1990 - Strong northerly winds prevailed from Illinois to the Southern and Central Appalachians. Winds gusted to 68 mph at Sewickley Heights, PA. High winds caused considerable blowing and drifting of snow across northern and central Indiana through the day. Wind gusts to 47 mph and 6 to 8 inches of snow created white-out conditions around South Bend, IN. Traffic accidents resulted in two deaths and 130 injuries. Sixty-five persons were injured in one accident along Interstate 69 in Huntington County. Wind gusts to 60 mph and 4 to 8 inches of snow created blizzard conditions in eastern and northern Ohio. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
    1991 - In the Gulf War, the ground campaign began with an Allied night attack. More than 14,000 Iraqis were captured in the first 24 hours of fighting. The Persian Gulf War, codenamed Operation Desert Storm, authorized by the U.N. and led by the U.S., began with an all-out air war against Iraq on January 15, 1991. Its objective was to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, which Iraq had occupied since August 2, 1990. Ground action began February 24 and three days later, President George H. W. Bush halted the fighting with Iraqi forces routed. Iraq agreed to destroy its facilities for making chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons, but stalled the actual carrying out of the relevant UN resolution American casualties were 146 dead and 467 wounded. Iraq set fires to all the oil wells, gutted the hospitals, stole jewelry, automobiles, anything they could carry or drive. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, all US allies in the Persian Gulf War, wanted the US presence out of the area as soon as possible.
    1991 - Top Hits
“All the Man that I Need” - Whitney Houston
“One More Try” - Timmy -T-
“Someday” - Mariah Carey
“Walk on Faith” - Mike Reid
    1992 - GM loses $4.45 billion: The greatest loss by a US company was suffered by the world's largest industrial company, General Motors Corporation, who announced they had a $4.45 billion loss for the year 1991.
    1992 - The U.S. Postal Service unveils 2 versions of its proposed Elvis stamp for fans to vote on. Eventually, the younger Elvis wins and is issued on January 8, 1993
    1992 - As of 2:45 am CST, International Falls, Minnesota had recorded 29.5 inches of snow for the month with snow still falling. This set a new monthly snowfall record for February. The old record was 29.0 inches set back in 1911. A new record was also set for winter season snowfall (Dec-Feb) with 68.5 inches. The old record was 67.9 inches.
    1993 - British rock legend Eric Clapton, who had been virtually ignored in the Grammy Awards for most of his career, won six Grammys, including the music industry's three major awards - record, album and song of the year. Clapton was honored for his album "Unplugged," and the song "Tears in Heaven." Clapton wrote "Tears in Heaven" as a tribute to his infant son Conor, who died in 1991 when he fell out a window in Clapton's 53rd floor New York apartment.
    1998 - Elton John is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in front of his parents and his partner David Furnish.
    1998 – Andrea Boccelli, already an international singing sensation, released his second album, “Bocelli,” by Sugar Music. The album achieved double-platinum in Italy, sextuple platinum in Belgium, and quadruple platinum in both Germany and the Netherlands. His single song "Con te Partiro" topped the charts for 6 weeks in France, earning a triple-gold sales award. In Belgium, it became the biggest hit of all time, with 12 weeks at the top.
    1998 – Henny Youngman, legendary comedian, at age 91, died in Manhattan following a debilitating bout of flu. Youngman, often called "King of the One-Liners" was best known for his trademark "Take my wife, please!" Using that line since the 1930's, he continued after his beloved wife Sadie died in 1987.
http://www.iei.net/~liz/young.htm
http://www.comedycity.com/henny_youngman/
    1999 - Radio shock jock Doug Tracht, known as "Greaseman," was suspended indefinitely and then ultimately fired for a race-related remark made on station WARW-FM in Washington, D.C. On that morning's radio show, Tracht had noted that the Grammy Awards ceremony were scheduled for that evening and played a portion of a song by Lauryn Hill, a young black hip-hop artist nominated for 10 Grammys. Then he commented, "No wonder people drag them behind trucks." The reference was to the torture and death in Texas of James Byrd, Jr., a black man decapitated while being dragged behind a pickup truck. John William King, a white supremacist, was convicted of murder the previous day in the case. Tracht faxed a one-paragraph statement: "I'm truly sorry for the pain and hurt I have caused with my unfeeling comment. I have no excuse for my remark, and regret it. If I could take it back I would. In the course of my show, split second judgment is made over ad-libs. This remark was a grave error in my judgment." A statement from the station announcing Tracht's firing apologized to listeners who were offended. "While we will always strongly support the right of our on-air artists to express a wide range of opinions, even those that are unpopular or offensive to some, WARW cannot be associated with the trivialization of an unspeakable act of violence," the statement read.
    1999 - At the annual Grammy awards ceremony in the Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, hip-hop star Lauryn Hill broke a record for female artists, winning five Grammy Awards for her album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Hill's five wins in one night - album of the year, best new artist, female rhythm and blues vocal, R & B song for “Doo Wop (That Thing),” and R & B album - topped the four Grammys won by Carole King in 1971 for “Tapestry.”
    1999 – Arizona executed Karl LeGrand, a German national convicted of murder during a botched bank robbery, in spite of Germany's legal action to attempt to save him.
    2002 - XIX winter Olympics closes in Salt Lake City UT/Québec City
http://www.utah.com/olympics/http://www.saltlake2002.com/
http://anythingkiss.tripod.com/xix_olympics.html
    2004 - Heavy snows blanket wide areas of northern New Mexico, closing schools and highways.  The mountains east of Santa Fe receive 20 inches. Sandia Park, east of Albuquerque, measures 11 inches. 8 inches falls at Los Alamos
    2010 - The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver ends with, among other things, a surprise appearance by Canadian native Neil Young, who sings "Long May You Run" as the torch is put out.
    2014 – Researchers report that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy can increase the risk of ADHD diagnoses as the babies mature.  Taking acetaminophen in the first trimester has the lowest risk at 9% but there is a 63% likelihood of the condition in babies if the drug is taken in the last two trimesters.
    2014 – 29-term Rep. John Dingell, Jr. announced that he will retire at the end of his current term.  The 87-year-old congressman said that his health is fine but the hostile environment in Congress means that he can no longer do his job effectively.  Dingell began his congressional career by succeeding his father as representative for Michigan’s 16th district.  His wife, Debbie Dingell, ran to succeed her husband and defeated Republican Terry Bowman in the general election on November 4, 2014.  He died in 2019.
    2015 – President Obama vetoed the Keystone XL project which would extend the existing Keystone pipeline and connect Canadian oil directly with US Gulf Coast refineries.  Environmentalists claimed the extension will add to climate change.
    2020 – Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape and a criminal sexual act in a landmark case that ignite #MeToo movement.  He did not testify in his own defense during his trial and he was sentenced to 23 years in prison for two felony charges. 

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