This day in history - September 11

[seamusTX]

1609 - Henry Hudson arrived at Manhattan Island.

Probably he had no idea what he was looking at. He was searching for a northwest passage to the Orient, ignoring the riches of North America.

1786 - Delegates from five states met in the Annapolis Convention. Though the convention had no immediate effect, it eventually lead to the Constitutional Convention a year later.

1789 - Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first secretary of the treasury.

1814 - In the Battle of Lake Champlain, an American fleet denied the British control of the Great Lakes -- as it turned out, forever.

1936 - Boulder Dam, now Hoover Dam, began generating electricity.

1941 - Charles Lindbergh delivered a rather misguided speech in which he blamed "the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration" for trying to draw the United States into World War II.

The Japanese finished that job three months later.

1946 - By some accounts, the first long-distance car-to-car telephone conversation took place between Houston and St. Louis.

I can't find sufficient documentation of this event to remove "by some accounts."

When I was but a boy, long-distance phone calls were rare and expensive, the equivalent of maybe $1 a minute in today's money. Car phones were even more rare and hideously expensive. Only millionaires and highly placed government officials had them.

1967 - Surveyor 5 landed on the moon and began transmitting photos and instrument readings that increased knowledge of the moon by several hundred times what was previously known. It was the first Surveyor to land and fulfill its mission.

1973 - Elected President Salvador Allende of Chile was killed in a military coup.

Rumors and theories of U.S. involvement have not been resolved to the satisfaction of all interested parties.

2001 - Everything that could be said has been said.

- Jim

[Wisewr]

1936 - Boulder Dam, now Hoover Dam, began generating electricity.

If anyone had ever driven over this dam, I think they can agree with me in saying that is an awesome sight. And the fact that it was built in 1936 and is still ranked as the 35th largest hydroelectric producing dam in the world is amazing to me. Just a side note on this, you won't be able to drive over it much longer. The Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is due to be complete around September 2010 time frame.

112 people died in the making of the bridge. None were buried in the dam due to popular belief.

2001 - Everything that could be said has been said.

Amen.

[Fangs]

This might be uncalled for, and if it's innappropriate I apologize...

But I do love Star Wars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZGzXcnkKdE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;