Monday, February 10, 2014
[1868 - William Allen White, newspaper publisher, writer, born in Emporia, Kansas]
[1890 - Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, poet, writer, born in Moscow, Russia]
[1892 - Alan Hale (Rufus Edward Mackahan), actor, born in Washington, D.C.]
[1893 - Jimmy (James Francis) Durante, actor, comedian, born in Brooklyn]
[1898 - Dame Judith (Frances Margaret) Anderson, actress, born in Adelaide, South Australia]
[1905 - Walter A. Brown, Basketball Hall of Famer, founder NBA, Boston Celtics,
born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts]
[1906 - Lon (Creighton Tull) Chaney Jr., actor, born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]
[1914 - Lawrence 'Larry' Cecil Adler, composer,
musician, born in Baltimore, Maryland]
[1920 - Alexander Comfort, medical researcher, gerontologist, anarchist, pacifist, writer born in London]
[1960 - USS Sargo (SSN-583) surfaces at the North Pole]
[1962 - American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers exchanged for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel]
[1966 - Ralph Nader testifies to Senate on US automobile industry social irresponsibility]
More than four decades ago, a youthful Ralph Nader appeared before Congress to expose the shameful safety practices of the Detroit auto makers. Now that Mr. Nader has become an old curmudgeon, and a perennially unsuccessful candidate for high office, the Detroit auto makers have finally listened to his message. Having resisted most safety advances in the intervening years, it was only government regulation, consumer oversight, and some expensive lawsuit losses (plus some healthy competition from the more responsible foreign manufacturers) that made the US-produced cars now on our highway more protective of human life. Detroit built safer cars only when they had no other sensible choice.
William's Whimsical Words:
Better late than never
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