[OffTheHook]

Jun 12, 1987:

Reagan challenges Gorbachev


On this day in 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany.
In 1945, following Germany's defeat in World War II, the nation's capital, Berlin, was divided into four sections, with the Americans, British and French controlling the western region and the Soviets gaining power in the eastern region. In May 1949, the three western sections came together as the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), with the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) being established in October of that same year. In 1952, the border between the two countries was closed and by the following year East Germans were prosecuted if they left their country without permission. In August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected by the East German government to prevent its citizens from escaping to the West. Between 1949 and the wall's inception, it's estimated that over 2.5 million East Germans fled to the West in search of a less repressive life.
With the wall as a backdrop, President Reagan declared to a West Berlin crowd in 1987, "There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace." He then called upon his Soviet counterpart: "Secretary General Gorbachev, if you seek peace--if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe--if you seek liberalization: come here, to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Reagan then went on to ask Gorbachev to undertake serious arms reduction talks with the United States.
Most listeners at the time viewed Reagan's speech as a dramatic appeal to Gorbachev to renew negotiations on nuclear arms reductions. It was also a reminder that despite the Soviet leader's public statements about a new relationship with the West, the U.S. wanted to see action taken to lessen Cold War tensions. Happily for Berliners, though, the speech also foreshadowed events to come: Two years later, on November 9, 1989, joyful East and West Germans did break down the infamous barrier between East and West Berlin. Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990.
Gorbachev, who had been in office since 1985, stepped down from his post as Soviet leader in 1991. Reagan, who served two terms as president, from 1981 to 1989, died on June 5, 2004, at age 93.


http://www.history.com/this-day-in-histo...-gorbachev

[OffTheHook]

Nicole Brown Simpson, famous football player O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman are brutally stabbed to death outside Nicole's home in Brentwood, California, in what quickly becomes one of the most highly publicized trials of the century. With overwhelming evidence against him, including a prior record of domestic violence towards Brown, O.J. Simpson became the chief suspect.
Although he had agreed to turn himself in, Simpson escaped with friend A.C. Cowlings in his white Ford Bronco on June 17. He was carrying his passport, a disguise, and $8,750 in cash. Simpson's car was spotted that afternoon, but he refused to surrender immediately. Threatening to kill himself, he led police in a low-speed chase through the freeways of Los Angeles as the entire nation watched on television. Eventually, Simpson gave himself up at his home in Brentwood.
The evidence against Simpson was extensive: His blood was found at the murder scene; blood, hair, and fibers from Brown and Goldman were found in Simpson's car and at his home; one of his gloves was also found in Brown's home, the other outside his own house; and bloody shoeprints found at the scene matched those of shoes owned by Simpson.
However, Simpson's so-called "Dream Team" of defense lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey, claimed before a national television audience that Simpson had been framed by racist police officers such as Detective Mark Fuhrman. After deliberating for three hours, the jury acquitted Simpson. He vowed to find the "real killers," but has yet to turn up any new leads.
In a civil trial brought about by the families of the victims, Simpson was found responsible for causing Goldman's death and committing battery against Brown in February 1997, and was ordered to pay a total of $33.5 million, little of which he has paid.
In 2007, Simpson ran into legal problems once again when he was arrested for breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room and taking sports memorabilia, which he claimed had been stolen from him, at gunpoint. On October 3, 2008, he was found guilty of 12 charges related to the incident, including armed robbery and kidnapping, and sentenced to 33 years in prison.


http://www.history.com/this-day-in-histo...n-murdered

[OffTheHook]

On this day in 2003, the film actor Gregory Peck, best known to many for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of the courageous, dignified lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), dies at his home in Los Angeles, at the age of 87.
Born on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, California, Peck graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1939. He subsequently moved to New York and got a series of odd jobs while performing in summer-stock theater productions. In 1942, he made his Broadway debut in The Morning Star in 1942; the show (and two others in which he appeared soon after) flopped, but Peck earned positive reviews for his performances. In 1944, he landed his first big-screen role, playing a Russian guerrilla in Days of Glory (1944). The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), only his second film, propelled Peck to stardom and garnered him an Oscar nod for Best Actor.
Exempt from military service in World War II due to a spinal injury, Peck was in high demand as a wartime leading man in Hollywood. He famously turned down a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer--despite the tearful entreaties of the studio’s powerful head, Louis B. Mayer--and maintained non-exclusive contracts with four different studios. As a result, he had an uncommon string of successes in the latter half of the 1940s, including a starring turn opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Spellbound (1945) and Oscar-nominated performances in 1947’s Gentleman’s Agreement (as a journalist who poses as a Jew in order to expose anti-Semitism) and The Yearling. He went against the grain to play a villain in Duel in the Sun (1946), but the big-budget Western was a box-office failure. He earned yet another Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role as a World War II general in 1949’s Twelve O’Clock High.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Peck remained one of Hollywood’s busiest leading men, starring in films such as The Gunfighter (1950), Roman Holiday (1951), David and Bathsheba (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), Moby Dick (1956), On the Beach (1959) and The Guns of Navarone (1961). He finally took home the Academy Award for Best Actor for To Kill a Mockingbird, in which he played Atticus Finch, a lawyer defending a black man accused of raping a white woman in the racist South. At the time, the civil rights movement was beginning to earn national attention, and Peck’s portrayal of Finch became legendary for its understated courage and moral strength.
Peck’s long film career stretched into the next three decades, as he starred in the military drama MacArthur (1977); The Boys From Brazil (1978), in which he played the infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele; the poorly reviewed Old Gringo (1989); and the Danny DeVito comedy Other People’s Money (1991). Also in 1991, Peck had a cameo role in Cape Fear, Martin Scorsese’s remake of the 1962 film in which he had played the starring role.
In addition to his prolific acting career, Peck was extremely active in Hollywood’s industry and charitable causes. A longtime governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he served as its president from 1967 to 1970. He was also a founding chairman of the American Film Institute (AFI).


http://www.history.com/this-day-in-histo...-peck-dies

[OffTheHook]

Lieutenant John F. Kennedy receives the Navy's highest honor for gallantry for his heroic actions as a gunboat pilot during World War II on this day in 1944. The future president also received a Purple Heart for wounds received during battle. As a young man, Kennedy had desperately wanted to go into the Navy but was originally rejected because of chronic health problems, particularly a back injury he had sustained playing football while attending Harvard. In 1941, though, his politically connected father used his influence to get Jack into the service. In 1942, Kennedy volunteered for PT (motorized torpedo) boat duty in the Pacific.
In July 1943, according to the official Navy report, Kennedy and the crew of PT 109 were ordered into combat near the Solomon Islands. In the middle of the night on August 2, their boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and caught fire. Several of Kennedy's shipmates were blown overboard into a sea of burning oil. Kennedy dove in to rescue three of the crew and in the process swallowed some of the toxic mixture. (Kennedy would later blame this for chronic stomach problems.) For 12 hours, Kennedy and his crew clung to the wrecked hull, before he ordered them to abandon ship. Kennedy and the other good swimmers placed the injured on a makeshift raft, and then took turns pushing and towing the raft four miles to safety on a nearby island.
For six days, Kennedy and his crew waited on the island for rescue. They survived by drinking coconut milk and rainwater until native islanders discovered the sailors and offered food and shelter. Every night, Kennedy tried to signal other U.S. Navy ships in the area. He also reportedly scrawled a message on a coconut husk and gestured to the islanders to take it to a nearby PT base at Rendova. On August 8, a Navy patrol boat picked up the haggard survivors.
On June 12, 1944, while he was in the hospital recuperating from back surgery, Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps medal for courage, endurance and excellent leadership [that] contributed to the saving of several lives and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."


http://www.history.com/this-day-in-histo...ves-medals

[Granny Bear]

Wow....good job OTH!

[MustangSally]

Happy Peanut Butter cookie day

[MustangSally]

Happy Russian Day also......................................wonder if it will catch on like Cinco De Mayo, or St Patrick Day.............................

Vodka and Bliny with caviar for everyone