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Thread: This Day in History |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
On May 8:
1886 - Atlanta pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented the flavored syrup for Coca-Cola. The first recipe Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta, Georgia, by John S. Pemberton, originally as a cocawine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca in 1885. He may have been inspired by the formidable success of European Angelo Mariani's cocawine, Vin Mariani. In 1885, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed Prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a carbonated, non-alcoholic version of French Wine Cola. The beverage was named Coca-Cola because, originally, the stimulant mixed in the beverage was coca leaves from South America. In addition, the drink was flavored using kola (Cola) nuts, the beverage's source of caffeine. Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose, whereas, in 1891, Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton's original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Coca-Cola did once contain an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass but after 1903 Coca-Cola started using, instead of fresh leaves, "spent" leaves - the leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process with cocaine trace levels left over at a molecular level. However, as cocaine is one of numerous alkaloids present in the coca leaf, it was nevertheless present in the drink. Today, the flavoring is still done with kola nuts and the "spent" coca leaf. In the United States, there is only one plant (in New Jersey) authorized by the Federal Government to grow the coca plant for Coca-Cola syrup manufacture. Coca-Cola was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time thanks to a belief that carbonated water was good for the health. Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured a myriad of diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence. The first sales were made at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886, and for the first eight months only nine drinks were sold each day. Pemberton ran the first advertisement for the beverage on May 29 of the same year in the Atlanta Journal. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
May 9, 1994
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
May 9 1997:
Twenty-two years and 10 days after the fall of Saigon, former Florida Representative Douglas "Pete" Peterson becomes the first ambassador to Vietnam since Graham Martin was airlifted out of the country by helicopter in late April 1975. Peterson himself served as a U.S. Air Force captain during the Vietnam War and was held as a prisoner of war for six and a half years after his bomber was shot down near Hanoi in 1966. Thirty-one years later, Peterson returned to Hanoi on a different mission, presenting his credentials to Communist authorities in the Vietnamese capital on May 9, 1997. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
On May 9:
1502 - Christopher Columbus left Spain on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
may 09 1946:
birthday actress Candice [Patricia] Bergen - Beverly Hills - Los Angeles. TV: "Murphy Brown" (1988-98). movies: "Carnal Knowledge", "The group", "Starting over", "Miss congeniality" |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
May 09 1940 -
Actress Vivien Leigh made her American theatre debut with Laurence Olivier in Romeo and Juliet in New York City. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
May 9, 1978 : ALDO MORO FOUND DEAD:
On May 9, 1978, the body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro is found, riddled by bullets, in the back of a car in the center of historic Rome. He was kidnapped by Red Brigade terrorists on March 16 after a bloody shoot-out near his suburban home. The Italian government refused to negotiate with the extreme left-wing group, which, after numerous threats, executed Moro on May 9. He was a five-time prime minister of Italy and considered a front-runner for the presidency of Italy in elections due in December. Aldo Moro was regarded by many as Italy's most capable post-World War II politician. A centrist leader of the Christian Democratic Party, he served five times as prime minister in the 1960s and 1970s and promoted cooperation between Italy's disparate political parties. When he formed his first cabinet in 1963, he included some Socialists, who were thus participating in the Italian government for the first time in 16 years. Moro last served as prime minister in 1976, and in October 1976 became president of the Christian Democrats. On March 11, 1978, he helped end a government crisis when he worked out a parliamentary coalition between the Communist Party and the dominant Christian Democrats. Just five days later, Mr. Moro's car was attacked by a dozen armed Red Brigade terrorists. His five guards were killed, and Moro was abducted and taken to a secret location. On March 18, the Red Brigade issued a communique claiming responsibility for the kidnapping and stating that Moro would undergo a "people's trial." The Red Brigade, established in 1970 by Italian Renato Curcio, employed bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and bank robberies as a means of promoting communist revolution in Italy. The Italian Communist Party, which supported democracy and participated in Parliament, condemned the terrorist Red Brigade, and the Red Brigade accused the Communist Party of being a pawn of the bourgeoisie. Renato Curcio and 12 other Red Brigade members were on trial in Turin when Moro was kidnapped, and legal proceedings were only briefly halted after his abduction. The Italian government declined to negotiate with the kidnappers, claiming that such an action would undermine the state and throw Italy into chaos. Some critics accused the Christian Democrats of yielding to pressure from the Communist Party, whose leaders were even more strongly opposed to a dialogue with the Red Brigade. Police and the army arrested hundreds of suspected terrorists and scoured the country looking for the "people's prison" where Moro was being held but failed to find any solid clues. On March 19 and April 4, letters apparently freely written by Moro were delivered pleading with the government to negotiate. The government attempted secret talks, but on April 15 the Red Brigade rejected these negotiations and announced that Moro had been found guilty in the people's trial and sentenced to death. Threats to execute him led nowhere, and on April 24 the terrorists demanded the release of 13 Red Brigade members held in Turin in exchange for Moro's life. On May 7, Moro sent a farewell letter to his wife, saying, "They have told me that they are going to kill me in a little while, I kiss you for the last time." Two days later, his body was found on Via Caetani, within 300 yards of the headquarters of the Christian Democrats and 200 yards from the Communist Party headquarters. According to a wish expressed by Moro during his abduction, no Italian politicians were invited to his funeral. During the next decade, many Red Brigade leaders and members were arrested, and the organization was greatly weakened. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Is your car spying on you?
By Robert Vamosi Senior editor, CNET Reviews May 4, 2007 On April 12, 2007, New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine was seriously injured in a crash on the Garden State Parkway. In the days following, witnesses, including a state patrol officer assigned to ride with the governor, gave varying accounts, most estimating the governor's SUV traveling at a speed of more than 70mph. Now it seems that the vehicle had been traveling at 91mph in the final seconds before the crash, and, moreover, the governor, seated in the front passenger seat, was not wearing his seatbelt. How do we know this? Because the Chevy Suburban used in his motorcade contained a black box. A lucky fluke? Turns out most domestic cars sold within the last few years all contain them as well. Who knew? Event Data Recorders Since 2000, most domestic automobile manufacturers, namely General Motors (GM) and Ford, have been quietly installing what are technically called Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders (MVEDR). These are devices based on IEEE standards formally adopted in 2002. Since the 1970s, GM has been installing something it called Sensing and Diagnostic modules (SDM) in car models fitted with airbags. SDMs, which captured and recorded data only after a crash, were originally designed to help GM improve the performance of the airbags and its crash defense mechanisms. MVEDR data, in at least one case, prompted GM to make at least one vehicle safety recall. The newer MVEDRs are wired to the car's electronic sensing features and are constantly receiving input from various features in modern cars, not just the airbag system. Unlike the airplane versions, black boxes in cars do not record conversations inside the car and retain data from only the five seconds before a crash until a few seconds after, triggered by an increase in G-forces on the vehicle. The data is retained for as long as 45 days after an event. Until now, what MVEDRs capture--and even when they retain it--has been left up to the manufacturers. Standards, slowly Beginning in 2011, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will require standards for MVEDR data collection, including some 42 points of common data deemed beneficial to crash investigators. Turns out that, with antilock braking systems (ABS) on most cars these days, skid marks left at the scene of an accident are no longer accurate in predicting how fast a vehicle was traveling, if skid marks are even present. The use of traction control and stability systems mean most cars don't even leave skid marks these days. Unlike the airplane versions, black boxes in cars do not record conversations inside the car and retain data from only the five seconds before a crash until a few seconds after, triggered by an increase in G-forces on the vehicle. The data specified by the NHSTA include vehicle speed, engine RPM, service brake on/off, lateral acceleration, vehicle roll angle, antilock braking system status, seatbelt status (driver and passenger), steering wheel angle, and a variety of specific airbag-related details. And beginning in 2008 the NHTSA requires a standard statement to be included in the owner manual for each vehicle containing an EDR. But there is no requirement that a vehicle must include an EDR, nor is there a prohibition on what the manufacturer collects beyond the NHSTA standards, or how it is used. Past examples There are a few legal precedents using MVEDR data. In 2004, the Christian Science Monitor cited two criminal court cases. In one, Danny Hopkins of New York was convicted and sentenced to 5 to 10 years after a black box in his Cadillac CTS reported he was driving at 106mph in a crash that killed a woman in another car. In the second case, in St. Louis, Missouri, Clifton McIntire pleaded guilty after the black box in his GMC pickup showed him driving at 85mph seconds before slamming into a Toyota. Until the accidents, neither driver knew their actions were being recorded. But there have been incorrect uses as well. In a case involving Maine Governor John Baldacci, the state trooper reported driving at 55mph. The investigators, using traditional forensics, determined that the vehicle was traveling between 55 and 65mph. But the MVEDR data downloaded from the manufacture recorded a speed of 71mph and was dismissed by all parties as inaccurate. Perhaps the MVEDR evidence in the Corzine case will also be shown to be incorrect as well. After taking the SUV around a particularly gnarly set of cones, the OnStar button lit up and the speaker system offered a helpful voice to ask if everything was all right. Getting creepy, however Currently several states have already gone ahead and made such disclosures law. But why the piecemeal approach? Why did it take NHSTA years to standardize the practice? According to the NHSTA, they're pleased with the progress that manufactures are making on their own. Indeed, GM has already found novel ways to integrate its MVEDR collection into other aspects of their company, such as OnStar, a roadside service package available in all GM cars. In 2004, while testing a 2005 Chevy Malibu Maxx, the editors at AutoWeek reported that after taking the SUV around a particularly gnarly set of cones, the OnStar button lit up and the speaker system offered a helpful voice to ask if everything was all right. No one in the car had reported a problem. Rather, the vehicle's MVEDR system had kicked in because of the increase in G-force data. AutoWeek reported that OnStar collects data on near-collisions and collisions and retains this data for as long as 18 months. New laws? Not yet. If you think government is going to step in and legislate how and when MVEDRs can be used, think again. Individual states are looking into use of this data for themselves. In California, aides to Governor Schwarzenegger have floated an idea in which these same MVEDRs could be enlisted to record mileage and thus impose an additional mileage tax on those drivers who drove greater distances between refuelings. In Oregon, a similar proposal calls for MVEDRs to include GPS transponders in order to tax cars only while driving within the state boundaries. On the commercial side, at least one auto insurance company has considered using MVEDR data to offer discounts to "safe drivers." Progressive currently has a pilot program in Minnesota, Michigan, and Oregon called TripSense in which insurees voluntarily install a GPS device to record their average travel speeds, with the insurance company offering reduced rate to those who stay below the posted road speeds. It's not hard to imagine a day with MVEDR data on near-collisions might also be considered for insurance purposes. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
May 10 1865:
Jefferson Davis, president of the fallen Confederate government, is captured with his wife and entourage near Irwinville, Georgia, by a detachment of Union General James H. Wilson's cavalry. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
On May 10:
1863 - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died of pneumonia a week after losing his arm from friendly fire during the Battle of Chancellorsville. |
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