Raise your hand if you can sing that "Schoolhouse Rock" song about the Constitution.
They began writing the lyrics 219 years ago today.
TODAY IN HISTORY (May 14):
1631 - Mervyn Toucet, second Earl of Castlehaven, was beheaded after being found guilty of sodomy.
1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to meet to write a new Constitution for the United States.
1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.
1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begin their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
1897 - The Scientific Humanitarian Committee was founded in Berlin by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld to organize opposition to legal and social oppression of homosexuals in Germany. It would be the first of several pre-Nazi gay liberation organizations in Berlin.
1928 - A statement was published by the Nazi party declaring that anyone who even thinks of committing homosexual acts is an enemy of Germany.
1939 - Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.
1948 - Israel declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established.
1955 - Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
1974 - Bella Abzug (D-NY) and Edward Koch (D-NY) introduced HR-14752, the first gay rights bill to be introduced into the US House of Representatives. It sought to add sexual orientation to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
1976 - Montreal began a series of raids on gay bars in an attempt to make the city presentable for the summer Olympic games.
1981 - Ronald Reagan cancelled the White House subscription to the gay magazine The Advocate.
1987 - In Boston, two firefighters were found guilty of assaulting Kris Pierce and Laurel Bowman, both lesbians, and John Welch, a gay man. They were sentenced to six months probation.
1987 - In Louisiana the House Criminal Justice Committee narrowly defeated a bill which would have allowed people who transmitted HIV to be charged with second-degree murder.
1987 - The City Council of Gaithersburg, a Washington D.C. suburb, adopted a human rights law which included protection for gays.
1992 - Gay teens in Michigan organized a gay prom.
1996 - A U.S. Episcopal Church court rules that there is no "core doctrine" against ordaining a gay man as a deacon, the clergy rank below that of priest.
1998 - The finale of Seinfeld airs on NBC, with 76 million viewers tuning in to watch Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer stand trial in the fictional Lathem, Massachussetts for breaking the Good Samaritan Law.
1998 - The Legendary Crooner Frank Sinatra dies in Palm Springs, California at age 82
2004 - The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear a challenge to the Massachusetts ruling that allowed same-sex marriages to begin three days later. Born on this day:
1265 - Dante Alighieri, Italian poet (d. 1321)
1928 - Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, (Che) Argentine-born revolutionary (despite popular belief that he was born June 14) (d. 1967)
1936 - Bobby Darin, American singer (d. 1973)
1942 - Byron Dorgan, U.S. Senator
1944 - George Lucas, American film director and producer
1952 - David Byrne, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist (Talking Heads)
1952 - Robert Zemeckis, American film director
1953 - Tom Cochrane, Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist (Red Rider)
1961 - Tim Roth, English actor
1967 - Tony "The Goose" Siragusa, American football player
1969 - Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
1971 - Sofia Coppola, American film writer and director
1983 - Amber Tamblyn, American actress
Isn't that how you learned the preamble? Oh, and that England sucks? Ye gods, these are NOT pc.
Posted by: J Kevin | May 14, 2006 at 02:05 PM
Or how about "conjuntion, conjunction, what's your function"? hehehe ah the memories...
Posted by: AGJ | May 14, 2006 at 10:47 PM