NEFA Cancels March 25 – 27 San Antonio, Conference
Letter from Mike Toglia, Executive Director

Dear NEFA Members,

After careful consideration of the safety, health and well-being of our members, the Board of Directors of the National Equipment Finance Association has made the difficult decision to cancel the National Equipment Finance Summit scheduled for March 25th – 27th, in San Antonio, TX. We believe this decision is in the best interest of everyone given the uncertainty and health concerns surrounding COVID-19 and the warnings, guidelines and restrictions coming from local, state and federal government relating to the virus and travel activities. Rest assured, the decision to cancel this conference was not made lightly, but was ultimately necessary to protect our members, as well as their families and communities.

Our entire Board and the NEFA staff are disappointed that this conference will not be held and we understand that the planning, hard-work and financial investment undertaken by attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, educational session participants, and everyone involved in this event is significant. We have worked hard to create a strong conference, but we must now switch our focus to the administration of the cancelled event. Your patience as we work to meet these challenges is greatly appreciated. Registrants can shortly expect to receive an email setting forth guidelines to help you choose between a refund or credit to be applied toward the Fall Funding Symposium scheduled for October 14th – 16th in Philadelphia, PA.

We sincerely regret this necessary cancellation and apologize for any inconvenience it may cause you. We recommend that you please review your airline’s COVID-19 cancellation policies for booked flights.

Sincerely,
Michael A. Toglia
Executive Director/CEO
National Equipment Finance Association

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

Currency Makes Executives Changes
 Under New Management

 

A well-known insider reports Lovell Minick, Lovell Minick Partners, LLC, Venture Capital and Private Equity firm, Radner, Pennsylvania, has fired the three top executives at Currency Capital, Los Angeles, California. The company is "An Aggregate Funding Source connects lessees, lessors, and vendors, as well as working with third party originators." Here are the three let go:

Charles Anderson
CEO & Co-Founder, Currency
Former President of IMCA Capital
Co-Founder
Commercial Equipment Marketplace Council

Logan Murphy
Chief Investment Officer, Currency
Formerly Sr. Manager Set Lighting
Paramount Pictures

Kote Flosse
CFO & COO
Formerly Operations Director
Currency

Emails were not returned, messages sent on LinkedIn were not returned, and the telephone call to Currency had a recording that said a "representative will be with you momentarily," but was not.

Later, the changes were confirmed by a funder who received an email from Peter Nguyen, Head of Sales, San Francisco for Currency, and the new CEO:

Greg Cohen, Lovell Minick Operating Partner and Board Member, is the new CEO. LinkedIn states he is "Commerce, Payments and Technology, Team Building, Leader, and Value Creator is now Chairman and CEO" of Currency.

He is lists on LinkedIn as “Advisory and Investment at PayXAdvisory. Board and Advisor: BillHighway, Currency, Fortis Payments as well as Operating Partner: Lovell Minnick Partners. Advisor and Investor helping bridge payments, software, technology and commerce. Engagements include Private Equity, Venture Capital and Financial Technology organizations. Providing strategy, leadership and support to the commerce and payments ecosystem."

The email from Peter Nguyen, Head of Sales, San Francisco for Currency:

“As a valued partner, I wanted to notify you that we have made several management changes to address our company’s continued growth.  These changes have been implemented to create scale processes, fortify the infrastructure and prepare the business and our platform to reach the next stage of its growth. Greg Cohen, an advisor of Currency for the past year, has now been elevated to Chairman and CEO of Currency effective March 5th. Greg brings a range of experience that will help us execute against our vision. Greg has 25 years of leadership experience in the financial technology industry and has led multiple equity backed billion dollar plus businesses. We have made two additional changes one of which was a position we eliminated and the other will be filled by a candidate hand-picked by our CEO in the coming weeks. 

Changes are never easy, nor do we take change lightly. That said, as a company we are confident in this decision and are excited to embark upon this rapid growth stage with deep operational prowess to further the game changing products and services we offer to the various equipment markets. 
Once again, rest assured there will be very limited operational impact on day to day operations. Your primary point of contact(s) stays the same.

All the best,

Website
https://www.gocurrency.com/resources/about-us/

 

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

Aggregate Funding Sources - Updated
(Online: connects lessees, lessors, and vendors)

These are online companies that connect via Financial Technology to funders of business loans, leasing, working capital, and other finance methods to secure credit approval that meet the criteria of the funder that they represent with the most attractive rate and terms for the applicant.

The list is down to two: both licensed in California. In 2000, there were 23 such companies. There are many alternate finance companies with many sources but they do not qualify as an Aggregate Funding Source.

These companies have several funders "where funders compete."

https://www.lendio.com/franchise/
Lendio, based in Lehi, Utah as Lendio Partners, LLC.
Website states they appear to have changed direction and now looking for applicants to become a “Lendio franchise. “ In the past, they advertised a network of 75 lenders offering multiple loan and lease options. They stated, "To date, Lendio has facilitated close to $1.5 billion in financing through more than 70,000 loans to business owners in all 50 states. With this access to capital, Lendio’s small business clients have generated an estimated $5 billion in economic output and created more than 35,000 jobs in communities nationwide."

Today they state, “As a Lendio Franchisee you will be able to help small business owners find the loan they need to grow their business by leveraging Lendio’s business loan marketplace. By helping your clients complete a single application, they will be reviewed by over 75 lenders, taking the headache of loan applications out of the equation!”

This company appeals primarily to vendors and other sellers of equipment.
https://www.gocurrency.com/resources/about-us/

Currency Capital is licensed as CFL (Lender and Broker), located in Los Angeles, California. They are a growth from IMCA Capital; Supermoney.com states “out of business.”

 

 

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

Help Wanted

Senior Leader Vendor Services/Equipment Lease Finance/Operations • Lead and further develop the Tandem Finance existing vendor services/ops organization • Small ticket, Vendor based originations model • Direct Lender, 38 years established publicly traded parent organization • Located in The Woodlands, TX (HOU area) • Reporting to President • Salary/Bonus/Benefits Bring your Passion, Experience and Enthusiasm to our rapidly expanding business in this senior level role. Reply to: msheehan@tandemfinance.com

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

12 years after Tesla released its first consumer car, the Roadster, in 2008, the electric car specialist produced its one millionth vehicle. The company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, congratulated his team on reaching that milestone via Twitter on Monday.

After producing very small numbers for many years, Tesla ramped up its production capacity significantly with the release of the lower-cost Model 3. Last year alone, the company made 365,000 cars, exceeding the total number of cars it produced in ten years between 2008 and 2017.

While going from zero to one million cars in little more than a decade is certainly an impressive achievement, yesterday’s milestone illustrates that Tesla is still far off traditional automakers in terms of its output. While Musk’s company has built one million cars since its foundation in 2003, industry leader Volkswagen produces more than 10 million vehicles per year.

By Felix Richter, Statista

https://www.statista.com/chart/21083/tesla-cumulative-vehicle-production/

 

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

Study Shows Smoking is the Most Preferred
 Marijuana Consumption Method 

A new study conducted by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that smoking weed is the most preferred mode of consumption among those who use cannabis regularly. The National Institutes of Health also published the research findings.

The study researchers used data of more than 6,100 adults from twelve states in the U.S. who consume marijuana. Ninety-one percent of the participants said that they smoke marijuana on a regular basis, while 59% said that smoking was their only mode of consuming cannabis.

The study also found that 25% have used marijuana edibles, while only 20% have used marijuana vaporizers. It is quite shocking to realize that three fourths of marijuana consumers have never had marijuana edible while four fifths have never used a vaporizer.

Five percent of the respondents said that they use marijuana edibles only, such that they have never smoked or vaped marijuana while 2% use vaporized cannabis exclusively.

The title of the study is “Modes of Marijuana Use: Smoking, Vaping, Eating, and Dabbing- Results from the 2016 BRFSS in 12 states.”

The frequency of different modes of marijuana consumption, such as vaping, smoking, edibles, and dabbing, and multi-modal use, has not been evaluated across multiple states and can be a useful source of information about prevention and education work, provided that certain modes of consumption are associated with specific public health risks.  The study aimed to evaluate the frequency of different modalities reported of marijuana consumption among adults in 12 states.

The data that was evaluated during the study was collected from 12 different states with various marijuana policies. The study comprised of 6,174 respondents who were 18 years and above. The respondents answered questions about the past month and their modes of marijuana consumption. The study used weighted frequencies for descriptive analyses, and logistic regression to identify correlates of multi-modal use.

The study found in the past one month, the frequency of consumption among adults in the 12 states was 9.1%, with the males at 12.0% while the females were at 6.3%. Thirty-three percent reported having used different modes of marijuana consumption, while 90.1% said they smoked marijuana through either joints, blunts, bongs, and bowls. Those who exclusively smoked marijuana were 58.3%; 24.5% reported having used a marijuana edible; 4.5% used marijuana edibles exclusively; 19.4% used only cannabis vaping, while 2.1% vaped marijuana only. Those who use any form of dabbing were 14.5% (flash vaporization or inhalation of highly concentrated marijuana), and 0.4% used dabbing only. They also examined the correlates of multi-modal consumption.

The study concluded that consumption of cannabis through multiple modes is frequent and that the use of other methods of consumption (vaping, edibles, dabbing) other than smoking occurs in conjunction with different ways of consuming weed. There is an ongoing investigation on the methods of marijuana consumption and multi-modal use to educate the public.

This data is likely to give companies like Champignon Brands Inc. (CSE: SHRM) a lot of food for thought because future trends are likely to be influenced by these preferences that marijuana consumers are exhibiting.

CannabisNewsWire420

##### Press Release ############################

AP Equipment Financing Announces
$110 Million Line of Credit with Wells Fargo

AP Equipment Financing has closed a $110 million line of credit with the Lender Finance division of Wells Fargo Commercial Capital.

Chris Enbom, CEO of AP, said, “We are very pleased to be working with Wells Fargo.  This is an important step in continuing to expand the activities of AP Equipment Financing.  We have grown from a small finance company to an entity that will fund over 3,000 small ticket transactions worth over $200 million in 2020.

“We are excited about the treasury management capabilities Wells Fargo has to offer as well as working with a large, specialized staff in Dallas, Texas who are highly responsive to our ever-changing funding needs.”  

Stewart Hayes, Managing Director in the Lender Finance Division of Wells Fargo Commercial Capital, commented, ”Wells Fargo is committed to providing AP Equipment Financing with the financial flexibility and industry expertise needed to support their strategic plan.

“We look forward to being part of their continued success and helping them achieve their long-term strategy.”

AP Equipment Financing reported a total finance volume of $170 million at the close of 2019, a 35% increase over 2018. AP is based in Bend, Oregon and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tokyo Century (USA) Inc., a part of the Tokyo Century Corporation global portfolio of companies.  Tokyo Century Corporation is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a global provider of equipment finance, technology management and finance, vehicle leasing and management, aircraft leasing and other finance activities around the world. 

### Press Release ##############################

 

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

### Press Release ##############################

ELFA Launches “Equipment Finance Matters” Podcast
Open to Members and Non-Members

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association today launched Equipment Finance Matters, a new podcast showcasing insightful interviews with leaders in the equipment finance industry. The podcast features a diverse group of executives sharing how they joined the industry, their top pieces of leadership advice and their personal stories of overcoming challenges and achieving successes. To listen to the podcast, visit www.elfaonline.org/podcast. 

The podcast was developed by the Emerging Talent Advisory Council (ETAC), a committee of up-and-coming employees from ELFA member companies working to encourage professionals to get involved in the association early in their careers and to attract the best and brightest to the industry.  In 2017, ETAC launched a popular “Ask a Leader” series of written interviews with industry executives. The interviews were so well received that ETAC conceived of expanding the series into a podcast format. 

Alexa Carnibella, ELFA Director of Professional Development and host of the new podcast, commented, “We thought, why not take it to a podcast?

 “This is a chance to get up close and personal with some fascinating leaders in our industry. We’re excited for listeners to get to know our first guest, ELFA Board Chair Martha Ahlers, and hear career wisdom from members with a range of backgrounds and experiences.”

The first season of the Equipment Finance Matters podcast will include six episodes. The first episode, “Soft on People, Hard on the Issues,” features ELFA Board Chair Martha Ahlers, President of United Leasing & Finance. Ahlers shares her top three pieces of advice for someone starting out in equipment finance, her biggest professional challenge and skills for success. Along the way, she and host Alexa Carnibella talk bumper stickers, diversity in the industry, fashion and finance, and Pepsi.

For more information about the Equipment Finance Matters Podcast, visit www.elfaonline.org/podcast or contact host Alexa Carnibella at acarnibella@elfaonline.org.

About ELFA
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) is the trade association that represents companies in the nearly $1 trillion equipment finance sector, which includes financial services companies and manufacturers engaged in financing capital goods. ELFA members are the driving force behind the growth in the commercial equipment finance market and contribute to capital formation in the U.S. and abroad. Its 575 members include independent and captive leasing and finance companies, banks, financial services corporations, broker/packagers and investment banks, as well as manufacturers and service providers. For more information, please visit www.elfaonline.org.  

##### Press Release #########################

 

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

##### Press Release #########################

Kabbage Launches Kabbage Insights™,
Allowing Small Businesses to Take Control
of Their Cash Flow With Just a Few Clicks

ATLANTA - Kabbage, Inc. launched Kabbage Insights, a fully automated tool that calculates and predicts cash-flow patterns to help small businesses identify cash surpluses and deficits. With the launch, Kabbage addresses one of the most vexing problems faced by small business owners. The new product comes just one month after the public launch of Kabbage Payments™, continuing the company’s rapid innovation to build a suite of integrated products that simplify cash-flow management for U.S. small businesses.

In less than 10 minutes, any small business can connect their real-time financial data to Kabbage Insights and access an analysis of their company’s historical, current and future cash-flow 24/7. The product continually evaluates the transaction activity of a customer over a 90-day period and organizes it in an easy-to-understand dashboard, allowing customers to quickly visualize their net growth without taking the time to calculate it themselves. Kabbage’s customer base of over 220,000 small businesses has immediate access.As a leader in predictive analytics and artificial intelligence for small businesses, Kabbage Insights produces personalized forecasts to predict the future cash position of a business. Customers can then set a desired low-balance threshold and receive automated alerts if accounts are predicted to dip below it, empowering small businesses to identify, act upon and prevent cash deficits before they occur.

Paired with the Kabbage Small Business Revenue Index, Kabbage Insights is also the first product available that allows small businesses to compare their company’s performance to similarly-sized businesses operating in their state and industry. The result is an unparalleled cash-flow tool that’s free for small businesses, helping them to anticipate changes, benchmark their growth, plan ahead and make more confident business decisions like when to cut expenses, invest or borrow.
With Kabbage Insights, small businesses can:

• Review cash-flow on the go via the intuitive mobile dashboard.
• Analyze daily performance and review money movement at a glance.
• Borrow strategically with forecast data to inform funding decisions.
• Save time, as studies show 91 percent of small business owners spend as many as 20 hours per week manually calculating cash flow.

“As a small business owner for many years, I spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out whether I’d have the cash to pay my various expenses, including payroll at the end of the month and it’s been a mission of mine to solve this ubiquitous problem for all small business owners ever since,” said Kabbage CEO Rob Frohwein. “Kabbage is pleased to launch Insights, taking on this burden for small business owners and providing them with cash flow analyses that large enterprises have at their fingertips. We will continue to level the playing field for the small business owner.”

About Kabbage
Kabbage, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, is a data and technology company providing small businesses cash flow solutions. Its suite of products includes Kabbage Payments, helping small businesses get paid and access the money they earn faster, Kabbage Funding, providing access to flexible lines of credit in minutes, and Kabbage Insights, a powerful and predictive tool to calculate cash flow. To date, Kabbage has provided more than 220,000 U.S. small businesses access to over $9 billion of working capital. Kabbage is funded and backed by leading investors, including the SoftBank Vision Fund, BlueRun Ventures, WildCast Venture Partners, Thomvest Ventures and others. All Kabbage U.S.-based loans are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-Chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC. Kabbage Payments, LLC, a subsidiary of Kabbage, Inc., is a registered Payment Service Provider/Payment Facilitator sponsored by Fifth ThirdBank, N.A., Cincinnati, OH. For more information, please visit http://www.kabbage.com. 

#### Press Release ###########################

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

### Press Release ############################

Credit Repair Firm Settles with FTC
"Effective credit repair takes time and effort"

By Colleen Tressler
Consumer Education Specialist, FTC

Your credit score affects whether you can get a loan — and how much you’ll have to pay to borrow money. People with low credit scores often have to pay more. So when a company says they’ll help you pay your way to a higher credit score, you might be tempted to listen. But don’t waste your hard-earned money: effective credit repair takes time and effort.

In its complaint against the operators of BoostMyScore.net (BMS), the FTC says the defendants guaranteed that, for a fee ranging from $325 to $4,000, someone could “piggyback” on other people’s good credit, artificially inflating clients’ credit scores in the process.

The FTC says BMS promised people’s credit scores would increase by anywhere from 100 to 120 points over two to six weeks, a result they couldn’t possibly guarantee or reliably deliver. The FTC also says BMS charged upfront fees for the credit repair services they offered, which is against the law. The Credit Repair Organization Act (CROA) makes it illegal for credit repair companies to lie about what they can do for you, and to charge you before they’ve performed their services.

As part of a proposed settlement announced today, the defendants will be banned from selling fake access to another person’s credit as an authorized user, and from collecting advance fees for credit repair services.

If your credit is less than golden, there are steps you can take to repair it on your own, including paying your bills by the due date, paying off debt — especially on your credit cards — and not taking on new debt.

If you’re in debt, a reputable credit counseling organization may be able to help. Good credit counselors spend time discussing your entire financial situation with you before coming up with a personalized plan to solve your money problems. They won’t promise to fix all your problems or ask you to pay a lot of money before doing anything. To learn more, visit Dealing with Debt.

Want more information on FTC cases like BMS? Sign up for our consumer alerts. If you come across any suspicious claims, report them to the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint.

#### Press Release #############################

Hound/Mix
Danville (Montour County) Pennsylvania

Winston

ID #43291293
Male
1 Year 2 months
Large
White/Brown
Neutered
Declawed: No
Housetrained: Unknown
No Small Kids
Site: Pennsylvania SPCA-Danville
Danville Dog Kennel
Adoption Price: $150.00

Looking for a high energy playmate? Look no further! Winston is a big ball of fun and energy. He will gladly spend all day playing fetch with you. Winston would love nothing more than to live with a family who matches his high energy. Winston still has a lot of puppy in him for being a year old. He is going to need a strong handler to show him some proper manors. Due to his high energy Winston would due best in a home with adults only. Winston could go to a home with other dogs he just needs another dog friend to show him the proper way to dog. Think Winston is your guy? Come on down to meet him!

Pennsylvania SPCA
Central Pa Center in Danville
1467 Bloom Road
Danville, PA 17603
(570) 275-0340
danville@pspca.org

Open 12:30 - 6:00 p.m. every day

Adoption Process and Fees
https://www.pspca.org/adoption-process

 

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

The cratering oil price sent markets into turmoil on Monday, as fears of an all-out oil price war and the ongoing coronavirus outbreak combined for a perfect storm of bad news. After stock markets from Germany to Japan had suffered steep sell-offs throughout the day, all three major indices in the U.S. tanked at the open, triggering a circuit breaker that halts trading for 15 minutes to keep stocks from falling through the floor.

Already on red alert due to the coronavirus epidemic, investors turned to safe havens, pushing the price of gold to a seven-year high and squeezing the 10-year Treasury yield to new lows. As of 10:00 AM EDT, the yield for 10-year Treasury bonds stood at 0.49 percent, up from a historic intraday low of 0.32 percent.

As of this writing, the entire yield curve for U.S. Treasury bonds, i.e. yields for bonds with maturities ranging from 1 month to 30 years, is below 1 percent for the first time in history, indicating that investors are expecting the Fed to cut rates to zero in the coming months.

By Felix Richter, Statista

News Briefs----

South Korea Burning Cash
 Business Insider Intelligence
http://leasingnews.org/PDF/south_korea_cash2020.pdf

American and Delta slash US and overseas flights
   as coronavirus causes a plunge in bookings
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/business/airline-flights-coronavirus/index.html

California hotels are being used for coronavirus quarantines,
 Gavin Newsom announces
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article241076871.html?

Amazon launches business selling
   automated checkout to retailers
https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2020-03-09/amazon-launches-business-selling-automated-checkout-to-retailers

U.S. heavy equipment makers, hurt by tariffs,
  vow to make them top election theme
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-equipment/u-s-heavy-equipment-makers-hurt-by-tariffs-vow-to-make-them-top-election-theme-idUSKBN20X1E4

Dicks stops gun sales
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/business/dicks-sporting-goods-remove-guns-from-440-stores/index.html

 

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

You May Have Missed---

A dozen years after the 2008 recession, a different kind
   of debt threatens the world economy
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/dozen-years-after-2008-recession-different-kind-debt-threatens-world-n1151801

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

Spring Poem

Three Spring Notations on Bipeds

by Carl Sandburg (1920)

            1

The down drop of the blackbird,
The wing catch of arrested flight,
The stop midway and then off: off for triangles, circles, loops of new hieroglyphs—
This is April’s way: a woman:
“O yes, I’m here again and your heart
knows I was coming.”

            2

White pigeons rush at the sun,
A marathon of wing feats is on:
“Who most loves danger? Who most loves wings? Who somersaults for God’s
sake in the name of wing power in the sun and blue on an April Thursday.”
So ten winged heads, ten winged feet, race their white forms over Elmhurst.
They go fast: once the ten together were a feather of foam bubble,
a chrysanthemum whirl speaking to silver and azure.

            3

The child is on my shoulders.
In the prairie moonlight the child’s legs hang over my shoulders.
She sits on my neck and I hear her calling me a good horse.
She slides down—and into the moon silver of a prairie stream
She throws a stone and laughs at the clug-clug.

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

Where will Tom Brady play next year?
  Here are seven possible destinations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/03/10/tom-brady-free-agent-destinations/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most

Tom Brady announces he's launching Hollywood production company
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/patriots/2020/03/09/tom-brady-launches-hollywood-production-company-free-agency/5001795002/

San Jose Sharks Face Uncertainty
  As County Bans Mass Gatherings
https://patch.com/california/losgatos/santa-clara-county-bans-mass-gatherings-sharks-games-imperiled

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

California Nuts Briefs---

Coronavirus:  SFBay Area colleges and school districts suspending in-person classes, some begin deep cleaning
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/10/coronavirus-bay-area-colleges-and-school-districts-suspending-in-person-classes-deep-cleaning/

San Francisco: Archdiocese closes all schools as Bay Area    
   districts, colleges deal with coronavirus outbreak
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/10/bay-area-schools-deal-with-coronavirus-outbreak-san-francisco-archdiocese-closes-all-schools/

PG&E settles with FEMA over billions in wildfire claims,
   avoiding bankruptcy fight in California
https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article241070636.html

Stunning beach on San Mateo County coast
  set to become new public park
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/10/stunning-beach-on-san-mateo-county-coast-set-to-become-new-public-park/

[headlines]
--------------------------------------------------------------

“Gimme that Wine”

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

Experts encourage Washington vineyard acreage
   removal to address grape surplus
https://www.capitalpress.com/ag_sectors/orchards_nuts_vines/experts-encourage-washington-vineyard-acreage-removal-to-address-grape-surplus/article_8fc0e984-5f00-11ea-b282-d3ef2c09d242.html

New AVA Proposed For Arizona
https://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataId=227228

Coronavirus trip cancellations hit
  Wine Country hospitality businesses
https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/northbay/sonomacounty/10794301-181/coronavirus-napa-sonoma-hospitality-business

Taste of Yountville canceled over coronavirus concerns;
   first event scrapped in Napa Valley
https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/taste-of-yountville-canceled-over-coronavirus-concerns-first-event-scrapped/article_08b2fff6-ed84-5a92-8138-0ae521541ac9.html

China’s wine industry will take a long time
   to recover from coronavirus
https://vino-joy.com/2020/03/05/chinas-wine-industry-will-take-a-long-time-to-recover-from-coronavirus/

Spiritual home of Rioja producers hit by coronavirus
https://harpers.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/26721/

The Chemistry of Canned Wines
https://grapesandwine.cals

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

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

US/International Wine Events
http://www.localwineevents.com/

Leasing News Wine & Spirits Page
http://two.leasingnews.org/Recommendations/wnensprts.htm

This Day in History

     1665 - New York's English Deputies approved a new legal code which guaranteed all Protestants the right to practice their religious observances unhindered. It seems those leaving the old world brought their religious prejudices with them, but with the intermingling of cultures, things began to change here. This action was the result of English proprietor of New York, James Duke of York, who, on February 28th, approved official recognition of all Protestant sects. Until this date, the official and only legal church was the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. This unusual toleration of the Dutch Church by the English Church contrasted sharply with the restrictive policies of the Dutch West India Company before its loss of the colony to the British in 1664. Despite this restriction, a great many unauthorized religious groups established footholds in the Dutch colony. This religious diversity inherited by the English proprietor in 1664 made the policy of toleration a practical necessity.
    1731 - Robert Treat Paine (d. 1814) was born at Boston, MA.  Jurist and signer of the Declaration of Independence.
http://www.roberttreatpaine.com/
http://www.colonialhall.com/painert/painert.asp 
    1778 - Marines precipitated the action when the Continental Navy frigate BOSTON, en route to France, sighted, engaged, and captured the British merchant ship MARTHA. As the drum of the BOSTON beat to arms, John Adams seized a musket and joined the Marines on deck until the frigate's captain, Samuel Tucker, sent him below for safety.
    1783 - George Washington forbids the unauthorized meeting of officers called for in the anonymous Newburgh Address and suggests a regular meeting of officers to discuss grievances to be held 15 March.
    1789 - Benjamin Banneker with Pierre L'Enfant began to lay out Washington in the District of Columbia.  Benjamin Banneker has been called the first African American intellectual. Self-taught, after studying the inner workings of a friend's watch, he made one of wood that accurately kept time for more than 40 years. Banneker taught himself astronomy well enough to correctly predict a solar eclipse in 1789. At the request of President George Washington, Banneker was placed on the planning committee to develop the nation's capital. It was lucky for DC that he had been asked to be a part of that process. When Pierre L’Enfant, the architect who had been asked to lead the design process, was fired for his bad temper, he left the city taking all of the plans with him. In two days, Benjamin Banneker recreated the complete layout of the streets, parks and major buildings all from memory. His effort saved the U.S. government innumerable time and effort. (In trying to prove the date of this event, it appears part of this may be “legend” or “hoax” mixed in with the truth. L'Enfant is recognized as the designer and he was fired.  “As chief designer of the new national capital, L'Enfant quickly antagonized the three commissioners in charge of making sure the place got built. When they complained, he alienated his principal supporters, including George Washington, who reluctantly fired him.  Although L'Enfant's plan was followed he was dismissed in 1792 after being responsible for removing without permission, the house of Daniel Carroll, an important resident in the city.”  Banneker did not work with L'Enfant. Banneker returned home in April, 1791. L'Enfant was appointed in March, 1791 to a very different job and worked at that job for one year. They would never have met and Banneker would never have seen L'Enfant's plans which were, according to him, still incomplete in 1792. L'Enfant still had the plans and lived just outside Washington until he died in 1825. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery but refused an appointment as professor at West Point.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/STYLE/design/05/22/major.lenfant.ap/
http://www.africana.com/archive/articles/tt_614.asp
http://www.progress.org/banneker/bb.html
http://www.inventorsmuseum.com/Benjamin_Banneker.htm
http://www.mth.msu.edu/banneker/
    1824 - The U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A lifelong friend and trusted aide of Ulysses S. Grant, Ely Parker rose to the top in two worlds, that of his native Seneca Indian tribe and the white man's world at large. He went on to become the first Indian to lead the Bureau.
    1845 - Wittenberg College was chartered in Springfield, Ohio, under Lutheran auspices.
http://www.wittenberg.edu/about/history.html
    1853 - Marines from the USS Cyane landed at San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua to protect American lives and interests during political disturbances. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the North American millionaire, recognizing the potential value of a canal route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, felt that the best site for such a canal was across Nicaragua. He began transporting people (especially those prospecting for gold in the western U.S.) across Nicaragua using stagecoach and boats in 1851. 
    1861 - The Confederate constitution was adopted unanimously by the Confederate congress at Montgomery, Ala. It declared the sovereignty of states and forbade passage of any law prohibiting slavery. Delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas gathered and spelled out that their country wanted to preserve slavery, which was the reason for the formation of the new country. The constitution resembled the Constitution of the United States, even repeating much of its language, but was actually more comparable to the Articles of Confederation, the initial post-Revolutionary War U.S. Constitution, in its delegation of extensive powers to the states. The constitution also contained substantial differences from the U.S. Constitution in its protection of slavery, which was "recognized and protected" in slave states and territories. However, in congruence with U.S. policy since the beginning of the 19th century, the foreign slave trade was prohibited. The constitution provided for six-year terms for the president and vice president, and the president was ineligible for successive terms. Although a presidential item veto was granted, the power of the central Confederate government was sharply limited by its dependence on state consent for the use of any funds and resources. Although Britain and France both briefly considered entering the Civil War on the side of the South, the Confederate States of America, which survived until April, 1865, never won foreign recognition as an independent government.  “Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, which may be included within this Confederacy, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all slaves.”
“No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro slaves shall be passed.”  “Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to, this Confederacy.”
“The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory, the institution of Negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.”
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/csa.constitution.html
    1865 - General William T. Sherman captured the town of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and promptly destroyed the Fayetteville arsenal
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar11.html
    1867 - Acquiescing to the will of Congress, President Andrew Johnson appoints commanders for the five military districts carved out by the First Reconstruction Act; 20,000 troops, including black militia, are sent south. Under their protection, over 70,000 blacks and 6,000 whites are registered to vote. Many of the whites are landless people who have been prevented from voting in previous years. Coalitions of blacks and southern whites, “scalawags” as they are called, elect representatives sensitive to their needs. With the army also came thousands of northerners, some to help and some to help themselves. These become known as “carpetbaggers” since many seem to have all of their possession in large cheap bags, often made of carpet. In spite of corruption that plays a large part in the post-war years, much food, shelter and technical help will be provided.
    1873 – David Horsely (d. 1933) was born in West Stanley, England.  He was a pioneer of the film industry in the US. He founded the Centaur Film Company and its West Coast branch, the Nestor film Company, which established the first film studio in Hollywood.   In the fall of 1911, Nestor opened the first motion picture studio in Hollywood in the Blondeau Tavern building at the corner of Sunset Blvd and Gower Street.  In April, 1912, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company (now Universal Studios owned by Comcast) was formed and Horsley’s and other small studios merged, each accepting shares in Universal as payment for their business. 
    1888 - Great Blizzard of 1888 raged, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400 along the eastern US coast.  Known as the Great White Hurricane, the storm paralyzed the coast from Chesapeake Bay to Maine to and to the Atlantic provinces of Canada.  Snowfalls of 20–60 inches fell in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and sustained winds of more than 45 miles per hour produced drifts in excess of 50 feet. Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their houses for up to a week.  Railway and telegraph lines were disabled, and this provided the impetus to move these pieces of infrastructure underground. Emergency services were also affected.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/blizzard1.html
    1895 – One of the Three Stooges, Shemp Howard, was born in Manhattan as Samuel Horowtiz (d. 1955).
    1898 - Dixieland trombone player Miff Mole (d. 1961) was born Roosevelt, NY.  He is generally considered as one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating "the first distinctive and influential solo jazz trombone style.”
http://www.redhotjazz.com/miff.html
http://www.harlem.org/people/mole.html
http://www.missouri.edu/~cceric/mm/miff.html
    1901 - Birthday of Gladys Rockmore Davis (d. 1967), NYC.  U.S. artist who has works hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 
    1901 – Baltimore Orioles Manager John McGraw signed a Cherokee Indian named "Tokohama" to play second base. In reality, Tokohama is an African-American whose actual name is Charlie Grant, but the ruse failed. Baseball's color line prevented Grant from ever playing a game for the Orioles.
    1903 - Bandleader Lawrence Welk (d. 1992) was born at Strasburg, ND. He learned to play the accordion and at 17 formed his first band. After playing all over the Midwest, he moved to Los Angeles, in 1955, his show began its nationwide television broadcast of “Champagne Music." The longest-running program in TV history, "The Lawrence Welk Show" played each Saturday on ABC from 1955 until 1971 when it was dropped because sponsors thought its audience was too old. One of my closest high school friends, Warren Luening, came from New Orleans to play on this show as a teenager. Welk kept the show on a network of more than 250 independent stations for 11 more years after the network, and still can be seen in reruns. Welk's entertainment empire included the purchase of royalty rights to songs, including the entire collection of songs by Jerome Kern. He also was a major real estate investor. His son Larry manages the estate today.
http://www.spaceagepop.com/welk.htm
http://www.welkshow.com/
http://www.branson.com/branson/welk/champan.htm
    1903 - Dorothy Schiff Thackrey (d. 1989) was born in NYC.  Although born to wealth, she bolted the Republican Party to engage in social welfare work. In 1939, she bought the New York Post and became the first female publisher of a New York newspaper. She wrestled it though the NYC newspaper wars and it lasted as the only daily afternoon paper.  Schiff sold the Post to Rupert Murdoch for a reported $31 million ($136 million in 2018), in 1976.
http://www.britannica.com/women/articles/Schiff_Dorothy.html
    1907 - A number of rich and famous women of the day including Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Mrs. Walter Damrosch, and Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney opened their own women's club, The Colony, with a clubhouse at 112 Madison Ave., New York City, the first time women had their own public gathering place.
    1907 - After some delays, the trial of political boss Abe Ruef begins, on a charge of felony extortion in demanding the proprietors of Delmonico's restaurant to pay him $1,175 under a threat that he would hold up their liquor license if they did not submit to his demand. 
    1911 - The US snow depth record of 451 inches was measured at Tamarack, California.
    1913 - Composer John Weinzweig (d. 2006), a pioneer of 20th century composing methods in Canada, was born in Toronto. Weinzweig was the first Canadian to explore the 12-tone technique in his 1939 work "Suite for Piano Number One." Weinzweig's works are considered to be one of the cornerstones of the Canadian repertoire. His ballet suite, "Red Ear of Corn," composed in 1949, is his best known composition.
http://www.centremusique.ca/CMC/dac_rca/eng/u_/Weinzweig_Dr._John.html
http://server.xlinternet.com/~admin69/films/weinz.html
http://www.yorku.ca/caml/weinzweig.htm
    1916 – The first of the so-called ‘super dreadnoughts,’ the USS Nevada was commissioned.  Four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets, oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the "all or nothing" armor principle. She served in both World Wars: during the last few months of World War I, Nevada was based in Ireland to protect the supply convoys that were sailing to and from Great Britain. In World War II, she was one of the battleships trapped when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, but she was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs while steaming away, forcing her to be beached. Subsequently salvaged and modernized, Nevada served as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and as a fire-support ship in four amphibious assaults: the Normandy Invasion and the invasions of Southern France, Iwo Jim, and Okinawa.
    1918 - The first cases of the "Spanish" influenza were reported in the US when 107 soldiers became sick at Fort Riley, KS. By the end of 1920, nearly 25 percent of the US population had had it. As many as 500,000 civilians died from the virus, exceeding the number of US troops killed abroad in World War I. Worldwide, more than 1 percent of the global population, or 22 million people, had died by 1920. Due to the panic, cancellation of public events was common and many public service workers wore masks on the job. Emergency tent hospitals were set up in some locations due to overcrowding.
http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/bubonic_plague/index.html
    1919 - Birthday of band leader/composer Mercer Ellington (d. 1996), Duke Ellington's only son, Washington, DC.
http://www.eternalflame.com/ellingtn.htm
http://americanhistory.si.edu/paac/deyf97/mrcr.htm
http://www.dukeellington.com/
    1922 - Drummer Jackie Mills (d. 2010) born Brooklyn NY
http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/bio/0,,517878,00.html?artist=Jackie+Mills
    1922 - Madeline Houston McWhinney Dale birthday, Denver, CO.  Founder of the First Women's Bank in New York City, the first full-service U.S. commercial bank to be predominantly owned and operated by women. In 1989, the name was changed to First New York Bank For Business and in 1994, it was liquidated.
    1926 - Sax player Billy Mitchell (d. 2001) born Kansas City MO
http://www.billy-mitchell.com/
    1926 – The Rev. Ralph Abernathy (d. 1990) was born in Linden, AL.  A leader of the Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and Martin Luther King, Jr’s closest friend. In 1955, he collaborated with King to create the Montgomery Improvement Association, which would lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1957, Abernathy co-founded, and was an executive board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Following the King’s assassination, Abernathy became president of the SCLC where he led the Poor Peoples’ Campaign March on Washington, DC in 1968. Abernathy also served as an advisory committee member of the Congress on racial Equality (CORE). He later returned to the ministry, and in 1989, the year before his death, Abernathy wrote a controversial autobiography about his and King's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. The title of his publication is "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography" and is still available.  
    1927 - First Armored Car Robbery: the Flatheads Gang staged the first armored truck holdup in U.S. history on the Bethel Road, seven miles out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the way to Coverdale. The armored truck, carrying $104,250 of payroll money for the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company, drove over a mine planted under the roadbed by the road bandits. The car blew up and five guards were badly injured.
    1932 - Jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins (d. 2007) born Chicago IL
http://aacmchicago.org/members/Leroy.html
http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Jenkins.shtml
http://search.centerstage.net/music/whoswho/LeroyJenkins.html
    1933 – During an exhibition game in Los Angeles, a significant earthquake sent the Cubs and Giants scurrying to second base until the tremors stopped.
    1935 - Bank of Canada, Canada's central bank, opened.  The bank was chartered by and under the Bank of Canada Act on July 3, 1934, as a privately owned corporation. In 1938, the bank was legally designated a federal Crown corporation. The Minister of Finance holds the entire share capital issued by the bank.
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/histor.htm
    1936 – Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (d. 2016) was born in Trenton, NJ.  Appointed by President Reagan in 1986, Scalia was described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Court's conservative wing.  Scalia died in his sleep at age 79. His body was discovered on the morning of February 13, 2016 in his room at Cibolo Creek Ranch in Shafter, TX. He had gone hunting the afternoon before, and then dined. The justice was pronounced dead of apparent natural causes.  His physician said Scalia had a history of heart trouble, including high blood pressure, and had recently been deemed too weak to undergo surgery for a torn rotator cuff. This left the Court with 8 justices.  In the event of a tie vote, the case is remanded back to the Appeals court whose ruling stands with no Supreme Court precedent.  On April 7, 2017, the Senate confirmed Neal Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court as Scalia’s successor.
    1937 - Hudson Delange Bank cuts “Sophisticated Swing.”
(see Will Hudson--- http://nfo.net/.CAL/th12.html
http://www.radiomoi.com:8080/skins/default/back1.gif
http://www.tuxjunction.net/moonglow3.htm
    1941 - The Lend-Lease program began which enabled Great Britain to borrow money from the US to buy food and arms during World War II.
    1942 - Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra recorded "Sleepy Lagoon," the last song Monroe recorded for Bluebird Records. Vaughn sang while Ray Conniff played trombone. Both later went to different record companies: Monroe with RCA and Conniff with Columbia. The baritone of Monroe was heard on radio, and he was in several movies in the 1950s. He died in May of 1973. "Racing With the Moon" and "Ghost Riders in the Sky" were two of his greatest contributions to music.
    1942 - Canadian folk singer and songwriter David Wiffen was born in England.
http://www.vaughnmonroesociety.org/
    1942 - After struggling against great odds to save the Philippines from Japanese conquest, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur abandons the island fortress of Corregidor under orders from President Franklin Roosevelt. Left behind at Corregidor and on the Bataan Peninsula were 90,000 American and Filipino troops, who, lacking food, supplies, and support, would soon succumb to the Japanese offensive. After leaving Corregidor, MacArthur and his family traveled by boat 560 miles to the Philippine island of Mindanao, braving mines, rough seas, and the Japanese Navy. At the end of the hair-raising 35-hour journey, MacArthur told the boat commander, John D. Bulkeley, "You've taken me out of the jaws of death, and I won't forget it." On March 17, the general and his family boarded a B-17 Flying Fortress for Northern Australia. He then took another aircraft and a long train ride down to Melbourne. During this journey, he was informed that there were far fewer Allied troops in Australia than he had hoped. Relief of his forces trapped in the Philippines would not be forthcoming. Deeply disappointed, he issued a statement to the press in which he promised his men and the people of the Philippines, "I shall return." The promise would become his mantra during the next two and a half years, and he would repeat it often in public appearances. For his valiant defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and celebrated as "America's First Soldier." Put in command of Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific, his first duty was conducting the defense of Australia. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, Bataan fell in April, and the 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers captured there were forced to undertake a death march in which at least 7,000 perished. Then, in May, Corregidor surrendered, and 15,000 more Americans and Filipinos were captured. The Philippines--MacArthur's adopted home--were lost, and the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had no immediate plans for their liberation. After the U.S. victory at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, most Allied resources in the Pacific went to U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz, who as commander of the Pacific Fleet, planned a more direct route to Japan than via the Philippines. Unperturbed, MacArthur launched a major offensive in New Guinea, winning a string of victories with his limited forces. By September, 1944, he was poised to launch an invasion of the Philippines, but he needed the support of Nimitz's Pacific Fleet. After a period of indecision about whether to invade the Philippines or Formosa, the Joint Chiefs put their support behind MacArthur's plan, which logistically could be carried out sooner than a Formosa invasion. On October 20, 1944, a few hours after his troops landed, MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte. That day, he made a radio broadcast in which he declared, "People of the Philippines, I have returned!" In January, 1945, his forces invaded the main Philippine island of Luzon. In February, Japanese forces at Bataan were cut off, and Corregidor was captured. Manila, the Philippine capital, fell in March, and in June, MacArthur announced his offensive operations on Luzon to be at an end; although scattered Japanese resistance continued until the end of the war in August. Only one-third of the men MacArthur left behind on March 11, 1942, survived to see his return. "I'm a little late," he told them, "but we finally came." 
    1945 - Rock guitarist Harvey “Snake” Mandel was born in Detroit. He learned blues guitar in Chicago, and beginning in 1968 played on albums by such artists as Canned Heat and John Mayall. Mandel developed into one of the most sought-after session men, as well as releasing several albums on his own.
http://www.harveymandel.com/yes_today/roots.html
    1947 - Mark Stein, organist with Vanilla Fudge, one of the first heavy-rock bands, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. Vanilla Fudge's extended and slow-motion version of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was a top-ten hit in 1968. Their debut album contained similarly extended versions of such songs as "Eleanor Rigby," "Ticket to Ride" and "Bang Bang." The group called their music "psychedelic-symphonic rock," but audiences soon tired of it. Vanilla Fudge broke up in 1970. Mark Stein later formed a group called Boomerang. There was a Vanilla Fudge reunion in 1986.
http://www.mark-stein.com/
    1948 - A record cold followed in the wake of a Kansas blizzard. Lows of 25 degrees below zero at Oberlin, Healy, and Quinter, Kansas established a state record for the month of March. Lows of 15 degrees below zero at Dodge City, 11 below at Concordia, and 3 below at Wichita were records for March at these locations. The low of 3 below at Kansas City, Missouri was their latest subzero reading of record.
    1950 - Top Hits
“Music, Music, Music” - Teresa Brewer
“I Said My Pajamas” - Tony Martin & Fran Warren
“Dear Hearts and Gentle People” - Bing Crosby
“Chatanoogie Shoe Shine Boy” - Red Foley
    1950 - Singer Bobby McFerrin born, New York, New York
http://www.bobbymcferrin.com/
    1950 - Frankie Laine's "The Cry Of The Wild Goose" hits #1
    1952 - Guitarist Johnny Smith along with Stan Getz cut “Moonlight in Vermont,” NYC.
    1953 – Boston Braves owner Lou Perini proposed a ban on the move of any Major League franchise to that of a minor league city until October 1. Two days later, he shocked Boston fans and broke his own proposed rule by moving his team to Milwaukee.
    1953 – A US B-47 accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb 15,000 feet on Mars Bluff, South Carolina.  It created a crater 75 feet across, but the nuclear core did not detonate, due to 6 safety catches.
    1956 – In spring training of what will become a Triple Crown year, Mickey Mantle hit a homer over the left field wall into the bay at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg, FL.  Stan Musial:  "no home run has ever cleared my head by as much as long as I can remember." Mantle hit another at Al Lang Field on March 20 that also lands in the water, and will clock a 500-foot shot in Miami four days later against the Dodgers. In 1956, Mantle hit 52 HRs to lead the Majors.
    1957 – The storybook run of game show contestant Charles Van Doren ended with his loss to Vivienne Nearing on “Twenty-One.”  In January 1957, Van Doren entered a winning streak that ultimately earned him $129,000 (the equivalent of $1,150,759 today) and made him famous, including an appearance on the cover of “Time” magazine on February 11, 1957. In 1959 he testified before Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the show.
    1958 - Starting this season, AL batters will be required to wear helmets.
    1958 - Top Hits
“Don't/I Beg of You” - Elvis Presley
“Sweet Little Sixteen” - Chuck Berry
“Lollipop” - The Chordettes
“Ballad of a Teenage Queen” - Johnny Cash
    1958 - After finding out that her husband, Jerry Lee Lewis has married his 13 year old cousin, Jane Mitcham files for divorce.
    1959 - RCA sends a Gold record to Elvis Presley as his single, "A Fool Such As I" reaches the one million sales mark.
    1959 - The first play by an African-American woman to appear on Broadway was “Raisin in the Sun,” by Lorraine Hansberry, which opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City. It was a story about an African-American family living in the Southside area of Chicago and starred Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil.
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/LorraineHansberry.html
http://www.uwyo.edu/wch/bdpmmrs.htm
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~spires/Concord/raisin.html
    1960 - Pioneer 5 was launched from Cape Canaveral, the first spacecraft placed in solar orbit to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It transmitted data for 138.9 hours.
    1962 - A record heavy snowfall occurred in Iowa, leaving up to 48 inches (at Inwood) on the ground. It was described as "one of the most paralyzing snowstorms in decades".
    1963 - The Rolling Stones entered the IBC Studios in London for their first recording session. They recorded cover versions of songs by their R & B heroes - Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon and Jimmy Reed. The recordings were never released.
http://www.rollingstones.com/home.php
    1966 - Top Hits
“The Ballad of the Green Berets” - SSgt Barry Sadler
“Listen People” - Herman's Hermits
“California Dreamin'” - The Mamas & The Papas
“Waitin' in Your Welfare Line” - Buck Owens
    1967 - "Yesterday" by the Beatles becomes the most-covered song of all time, notching 446 recorded versions in just two years' time
    1967 - The Supremes' "Love Is Here And Now You're Gone" hits #1
    1968 - Otis Redding was posthumously awarded a gold record for the single, "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay." On December 10, 1967, Redding was killed in a plane crash in Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. The song, recorded just three days before his untimely death, was one of 11 charted hits Redding recorded between 1965 and 1969.
http://www.otisredding.com/biography/index.html
    1969 - The Jackson 5 sign with Motown.
    1970 - KELLOGG, ALLAN JAY, JR., Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps (then S/Sgt.), Company G, 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. place and date: Quang Nam province, Republic of Vietnam, 11 March 1970. Entered service at: Bridgeport, Conn. Born: 1 October 1943, Bethel, Conn. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a platoon sergeant with Company G, in connection with combat operations against the enemy on the night of 11 March 1970. Under the leadership of G/Sgt. Kellogg, a small unit from Company G was evacuating a fallen comrade when the unit came under a heavy volume of small arms and automatic weapons fire from a numerically superior enemy force occupying well-concealed emplacements in the surrounding jungle. During the ensuing fierce engagement, an enemy soldier managed to maneuver through the dense foliage to a position near the marines, and hurled a hand grenade into their midst which glanced off the chest of G/Sgt. Kellogg. Quick to act, he forced the grenade into the mud in which he was standing, threw himself over the lethal weapon and absorbed the full effects of its detonation with his body thereby preventing serious injury or possible death to several of his fellow marines. Although suffering multiple injuries to his chest and his right shoulder and arm, G/Sgt. Kellogg resolutely continued to direct the efforts of his men until all were able to maneuver to the relative safety of the company perimeter. By his heroic and decisive action in risking his life to save the lives of his comrades, G/Sgt. Kellogg reflected the highest credit upon himself and upheld the finest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. 
    1970 - The 1969 Grammy Award winners are announced. The Fifth Dimension's "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" is Record of the Year. “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” by the band of the same name is Album of the Year and Joe South's "Games People Play" is Song of the Year. Also, Crosby, Stills and Nash won the Best New Artist award.
   1970 - The Beatles release, "Let It Be"
   1971 - TV's fictional Rock band, The Partridge Family, featuring David Cassidy on vocals, receives a Gold record for "Doesn't Somebody Want to be Wanted." It's the second of their five Top 20 hits.
    1971 - Television networks ABC, NBC and CBS were told by the Federal Communications Commission that a limited three-hour nightly program service -- or ‘prime time' -- would begin in September. The network programs were to be slotted between 8 and 11 p.m. on the East and West coasts -- an hour earlier in the Central and Mountain time zones.
    1972 - Neil Young's album “Harvest” hits #1
    1974 - Top Hits
“Seasons in the Sun” - Terry Jacks
“Boogie Down” - Eddie Kendricks
“Jungle Boogie” - Kool & The Gang
“There Won't Be Anymore” - Charlie Rich
    1977 – 149 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined negotiations. A radio announcer, 24-year old Maurice Williams, was killed.  The gunmen also shot D.C. Protective Service Division police officer Mack Cantrell, who died a few days later in the hospital of a heart attack. City Councilman Marion Barry walked into the hallway after hearing a commotion and was hit by a ricocheted shotgun pellet which lodged just above his heart. He was taken out through a window and rushed to a hospital.
    1982 - Marin County Supervisor Barbara Boxer officially files for the congressional seat being vacated by John Burton. Boxer, 41, a former aide to Burton, says she will run against President Ronald Reagan's economic and environmental policies. Mayor Dianne Feinstein says a San Franciscan should hold the seat, but Boxer has rallied support from San Francisco's leftist activists.
    1982 - Top Hits
“Centerfold” - The J. Geils Band
“Open Arms” - Journey
“I Love Rock 'N Roll” - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
“You're the Best Break This Old Heart Ever Had” - Ed Bruce
    1985 - DJs around the U.S. began questioning listeners to see which ones could name the 46 pop music stars who appeared on the hit, "We Are the World." The song, airing first on this day as a single, contains a “Who's Who” of contemporary pop music.
http://www.inthe80s.com/weworld.shtml
    1986 - After years of debate, NFL owners adopted a rule change allowing the limited use of televised replays to assist the officials on the field. The NFL adopted the current system in 1999, allowing the opportunity to "challenge" on-field calls of plays. Each coach is allowed two challenge opportunities per game, an unsuccessful one of which results in the loss of a time-out. Before the 2004 season, the instant replay rule was slightly changed to allow a third challenge if both of the original two challenges were successful.  Prior to instant replay, it was almost impossible to portray the essence of an American football game on television. Viewers struggled to assimilate the action from a wide shot of the field, on a small black-and-white television screen. However, with replay technology, “brutal collisions became ballets, and end runs and forward passes became miracles of human coordination.” Thanks in large part to instant replay, televised football became evening entertainment, perfected by ABC-TV’s “Monday Night Football,” and enjoyed by a wide audience.  Marshall McLuhan, the noted communication theorist, famously said that any new medium contains all prior media within it. McLuhan gave Tony Verna's invention of instant replay as a good example. "Until the advent of the instant replay, televised football had served simply as a substitute for physically attending the game; the advent of instant replay – which is possible only with the television – marks a post-convergent moment in the medium of television."
    1988 - A blizzard raged across the north central U.S. Chadron, NE was buried under 33 inches of snow, up to 25 inches of snow was reported in eastern Wyoming, and totals in the Black Hills of South Dakota ranged up to 69 inches at Lead. Winds gusted to 63 mph at Mullen, NE. Snow drifts thirty feet high were reported around Lusk, WY.
    1989 - Twenty-one cities in the central and southwestern U.S. reported new record high temperatures for the date. The afternoon high of 95 degrees at Lubbock, TX equaled their record for March.
    1990 - Forty-four cities in the central and eastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Record highs included 71 degrees at Dickinson, ND and Williston, ND, and 84 degrees at Lynchburg, VA, Charleston, WV and Huntington, WV. Augusta, GA and Columbia, SC tied for honors as the hot spot in the nation with record highs of 88 degrees. A vigorous cold front produced up to three feet of snow in the mountains of Utah.
    1990 - Top Hits
“Escapade” - Janet Jackson
“Dangerous” - Roxette
“Roam” - The B-52's
“Chains” - Patty Loveless
    1993 – Eric Clapton hit number 1 in the US with his "Unplugged" album that had been in the Top Ten for six months. The additional attention created by his six Grammys at the annual awards ceremony pushed sales of his live album even higher. "Unplugged" beat out "Achtung Baby," "The Beauty and The Beast" soundtrack and albums by Annie Lennox and kd lang for album of the year.
    1993 – Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female US Attorney General.  Reno was the third choice of President Bill Clinton, who whiffed with the nominations of Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood who had problems when it was revealed that both had employed illegal immigrants as nannies.
    1994 - Mary Wilson was the only original member on hand as the Supremes received their star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Diana Ross, who split with the Supremes in 1970, was in Europe. The third original Supreme, Florence Ballard, died in 1976.
http://www.marywilson.com/
    1994 - "I just can't stop laughing, I can't stop crying," the reaction of Helen Cunliffe, longtime advocate of the women's priest lobby, when the Church of England voted to ordain women as priests, November 10, 1992. The first women priests were ordained March 11, 1994 and performed their first priestly duties Sunday, March 13, 1994, Mother's Day in England.
    1996 - Celine Dion's "Falling Into You" was released. By the end of the year, the album had sold more than 18-million copies worldwide.
http://www.celineonline.com/
    1996 - Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr turn down a $225 million offer to do a reunion tour.
    1997 - Paul McCartney was knighted by the Queen in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Hundreds of fans, some wearing T-shirts that read "Arise Sir Paul," cheered his arrival and stayed outside the palace until he emerged.
http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9703/11/mccartney/
    1997 - The Columbus Quest defeated the Richmond Rage, 77-64, to win the fifth and deciding game in the American Basketball League's first championship series. Columbus had trailed two games to one. The Quest were led by Valerie Still, who scored 14 points and was named Most Valuable Player of the finals.
    1998 - French authorities dug up the remains of legendary French singer and actor Yves Montand and whisked them to a laboratory for DNA tests to settle a paternity suit.  (You may say, “What has this to do with American History and my closest answer is that he was an old flame of Marilyn Monroe.) The tests would determine if Montand was the father of Aurore Drossard, age 22, who claimed she was his daughter and wanted part of his estate. Montand died in 1991 at age 70, just three days before he was to testify in the lawsuit. While alive, he refused to submit to the DNA testing, but was forced to do it in death. Yves Montand was a popular French nightclub singer and movie actor, most famous for his dramatic role in the 1953 thriller “The Wages of Fear.” His long marriage to actress Simone Signoret weathered his reputation as a ladies' man, including his famous dalliance with Marilyn Monroe, his co- star in “Let's Make Love” (1960). In the 1980s, Montand had a second wind, with character roles in several films including “Jean de Florette” (1986). By the way, the DNA tests proved she was not his daughter
http://www.planningsense.com/archive/2001/05142001.html
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1359
    2002 - The Yankees released outfielder Ruben Rivera, a cousin of Mariano Rivera, for stealing Derek Jeter’s glove out of his locker, and selling it on the black market for $2,500. There are rumors that Rivera also took other memorabilia items. Rivera had been signed to a one-year contract for $1 million.
    2006 - Phoenix's record run for dry days finally ends at 143 days. The last measured rain fell on October 18, 2005. Not only did the rain break the dry spell, the 1.40 inches that fell was a record amount for the date.
    2008 - In New York, The Ventures, Leonard Cohen, and the Dave Clark Five are among those inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
    2010 - ETCHBERGER, RICHARD L., Medal of Honor
Rank: Chief Master Sergeant, Organization: U.S. Air Force, Company: Detachment 1, Division: 1043d Radar Evaluation Squadron, Born: 5 March 1933, Departed: Yes (03/11/1968), Entered Service At: Hamburg, Pennsylvania, G.O. Number: , Date of Issue: 09/21/2010, Accredited To: Pennsylvania, Place / Date: Phou Pha Thi, Laos, 11 March 1968. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Chief Etchberger and his team of technicians were manning a top secret defensive position at Lima Site 85 when the base was overrun by an enemy ground force. Receiving sustained and withering heavy artillery attacks directly upon his unit’s position, Chief Etchberger’s entire crew lay dead or severely wounded. Despite having received little or no combat training, Chief Etchberger single-handedly held off the enemy with an M-16, while simultaneously directing air strikes into the area and calling for air rescue. Because of his fierce defense and heroic and selfless actions, he was able to deny the enemy access to his position and save the lives of his remaining crew. With the arrival of the rescue aircraft, Chief Etchberger, without hesitation, repeatedly and deliberately risked his own life, exposing himself to heavy enemy fire in order to place three surviving wounded comrades into rescue slings hanging from the hovering helicopter waiting to airlift them to safety. With his remaining crew safely aboard, Chief Etchberger finally climbed into an evacuation sling himself, only to be fatally wounded by enemy ground fire as he was being raised into the aircraft. Chief Etchberger’s bravery and determination in the face of persistent enemy fire and overwhelming odds are in keeping with the highest standards of performance and traditions of military service. Chief Etchberger’s gallantry, self-sacrifice, and profound concern for his fellow men at risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
    2014 – The menswear industry consolidated as Men's Wearhouse announced a merger with Jos. A. Bank Clothiers.
    2015 – The US pledged to support the Ukraine in its fight against separatist militants by providing $75 million in non-lethal aid consisting of drones, ambulances and radios.  Humvees will be provided under a separate agreement.