General

Spam – tips to help you fight back

What is spam?

Spam is the name given to unsolicited and unwanted messages sent to your email address. In other words – electronic junk mail.

Anyone who uses email will probably receive spam. Spam emails are sent out in vast numbers, and often look like adverts. More than half of total emails sent are spam, and they cause considerable cost and irritation.

Spam emails sometimes contain viruses, which can damage your computer. They can also be used for criminal purposes â€“ spam emails may look very official, and ask you for confidential information such as credit card details or bank account PIN codes.

How do I deal with spam?

Companies and governments are taking measures to deal with spam. You can help yourself by following these tips.

before opening it, immediately delete any mail with a suspicious subject title, or from an address you don’t recognise
be very careful when opening attachments â€“ they can contain viruses that activate the moment you open them
install a good quality virus scanner and firewall and keep them up to date
install a spam filter, or subscribe to one from your internet service provider
consider having another email address to use when giving your email address to people you don’t know
if an email asks for confidential information about your bank or credit card company, check by phone if the request is real – genuine enquiries of this kind are very unusual
if you send emails to a large number of addresses, use the BC field (blind copy) – it means addresses are not visible to others
be careful when revealing your email address or telephone number on the internet, for example in chat rooms.

Don’t

don’t buy, don’t reply! Never respond to spam or buy any product advertised
do not try to unsubscribe from a spam email – if you do, the spammer will know that your email address is still valid and you will probably get more spam mails
do not react to false virus reports. These reports tell you how to take measures against a so-called virus. In reality there is no virus, but following the instructions may damage your computer
don’t give away confidential personal details. Be very cautious in giving away confidential information via email or on the internet, such as your bank account number, PIN code, password or login data Always think twice, and check whether the party on the other end is really who they claim to be.

What to do if you get spam

Once you have started to get spam, it is almost impossible to stop it other than by changing your email address.

Websites offering practical advice include the junkbusters website and the GetNetwise website.

Your rights

Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) businesses can only send you direct marketing messages by email if you have given explicit prior consent or where you have an existing customer relationship.

If you already have a relationship with a business you can opt-out and request that the business does not send you any more marketing emails.

Senders of marketing emails to individuals cannot conceal or disguise their identity.

How to complain

The Office of the Information Commissioner is responsible for enforcing the PECRs.

If you continue to get spam after you have opted out or receive unsolicited spam, you can download a complaint form from the Information Commissioner’s website – do not forward unwanted emails.

If you receive spam in the UK, the content of which you find to be deceptive or misleading – whether or not it is unsolicited – you can complain to the Office of Fair Trading or to your local trading standards department.

By Jim Hopkins, USA TODAY Wed Feb 21, 7:01 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO – The tech quandary for many small businesses isn’t about building a better website or when to buy Microsoft’s new Vista operating system. It’s an old problem managers thought they’d already licked: spam.

Unwanted commercial e-mail has surged in recent months as online fraudsters, bogus pharmaceutical suppliers and others send billions of pieces of spam engineered to pierce defenses at companies of all sizes. The share of e-mail deemed junk rose as high as 80% last month from as low as 47% in September, says software security firm Symantec.

Small businesses are especially vulnerable because they don’t have full-time tech managers or big budgets to fight back. “They put up fewer defense shields,” says Mike Song, co-author of The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You, published last month.

Most of the nation’s 6 million small employers have access to anti-spam shields on their computers; they just need to use them, Song and other e-mail authorities say. Need something stronger? Consider adding low-cost or free spam blockers such as MailWasher. Plus, don’t forget that small companies need employee e-mail-use policies, too.

In Minneapolis, self-employed publicist Alexis Walsko says her share of e-mail that is spam doubled in the past year. Lola Red PR’s overall e-mail volume surged to 350 messages a day.

Even so, as little as 5% of the mail that gets to her in-box is spam because she makes sure to use the filter built into her Outlook e-mail program, a tool she didn’t use a year ago. “I have just learned to deal with it,” she says. “Seems like spam is here to stay.”

It’s common for professionals to spend 40% of their time reading and sending e-mail, Song says. “They feel like hamsters on a wheel. The more people send messages, the more they get back.”

Spam is more than a nuisance. It may carry malicious programs that allow hackers to penetrate a PC’s security and view personal information such as credit card numbers or
Social Security numbers. Plus, a torrent of spam can bury legitimate e-mail such as customer complaints that companies are legally bound to pursue, says Stephen Whetstone, vice president at legal software maker Stratify.

Tips for dealing with spam:

â€¢ Don’t just delete.

That misleadingly simple solution does nothing to slow the arrival of more junk mail from the same sender.

Instead, use filtering tools built into widely used programs such as Outlook, training the software to block spam before it arrives. In Outlook, right-click on offending mail, choose junk e-mail, then add the sender to your blocked list. Users of Yahoo’s free e-mail program can check a box next to an e-mail, then click on “spam.” Google’s Gmail, which last week became available to everyone, has a similar feature.

â€¢ Write an e-mail policy.

At most, 10% of small companies have formal policies, Song estimates, and among companies that do, most are “just gathering dust.”

Policies are rare because, unlike corporate giants, small businesses don’t think they’re big enough to justify something so formal. “Small businesses are usually run in a more ad-hoc way,” says Adam Schran, CEO of Ascentive, which makes employee computer monitoring software for small firms.

Good policies cover the waterfront. They remind employees that computers are for business and not personal use. They outline when to use company e-mail addresses to buy products or register for services online. They tell how to use anti-spam software. And they remind employees to report surges in spam to supervisors.

Just as important, policies must be in writing and given to everyone with instructions to follow the rules.

â€¢ Try “disposable” addresses.

Create an account in an e-mail program that lets you automatically forward mail to your permanent address. Use the new address when signing up for online offers. If spam overwhelms the disposable address, delete it and create a new one.

Here’s an example. A Massachusetts book dealer uses Google’s Gmail to create the address, bostonrarebooks@gmail.com. He programs the account settings so all mail is forwarded to his permanent address, bob@bostonrarebooks.com.

Bob uses the Gmail address to subscribe to trade magazines and to buy office supplies. Months later, if spam becomes a problem in the Gmail account, Bob can delete it without jeopardizing his permanent address.

â€¢ Boost defenses.

Free programs such as SpamBayes and MailWasher work with Outlook and other e-mail programs for additional anti-spam protection.

In Los Angeles, consumer goods wholesaler Via Trading installed SpamBayes on each of its 20 employee computers to screen the company’s 2,000 daily e-mails for spam. CEO Jacques Stambouli says employees adjust the program to their own needs. “It really works – really, really well,” he says.

Self-employed website designer HollyAnn Carbino in Schuylerville, N.Y., uses MailWasher with her two e-mail programs, Outlook and Thunderbird.

A self-described “control freak,” Carbino likes MailWasher because it offers more options for deciding what’s spam. Plus, it lets her “bounce” mail back to senders so it appears as though her address is invalid.

Carbino has a lot of mail to deal with: 39 addresses, one for each website she manages for clients. Even with that volume, she’d never give up e-mail. “I couldn’t do it,” she says. “I can’t stand the phone.”

* Email Story
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* (What happened to the “Discuss” option?)

Anti-Spam tips for the UK

General
22/02/200722/02/2007

So what happened on the 19th? See below;

George Reed our Office Manager is 60 Today!

Happy Birthday George from everyone at Merlin.

0003 Sadiq Hidajat Persian writer (Blind Person Owl)
1473 Nicolaus Copernicus Tor.ºn, Poland, astronomer (heliocentrism)
1532 Jean-Antoine de Ba.¯f French poet (Les amours de M.©line)
1588 Pieter de Carpentier Flemish Governor-General of Dutch East-Indies
1611 Andries de Graeff mayor of Amsterdam (1657-71)
1616 Jacques de Saint-Luc composer
1671 Charles-Hubert Gervais composer
1683 King Philip V France, King of Spain (1700-24, 24-46)
1687 Johann Adam Birkenstock composer
1717 David Garrick actor/producer/writer (Aboan-Oroonoko)
1743 [Ridolfo] Luigi Boccherini Italian composer, cellist (Minuet)
1751 Cornelis de Gijselaar Dutch politician/patriot
1754 Vincenzo Monti Italian poet/translator (Al Signor di Montgolfier)
1755 Pieter G van Overstraten Governor-General of Netherlands-Indies
1762 Friedrich Franz Hurka composer
1763 Adalbert Gyrowetz composer
1780 Friedrich H von der Hagen German germanist (Nibelungenlied)
1812 Lauro Rossi composer
1817 Willem III last male King of Netherlands (1849-90)
1819 Mark Prager Lindo English/Dutch author/novelist/writer
1821 Francis Preston Blair Jr Lexington KY, (Representative-Missouri)
1824 Constantine D Uschinsky Russian educator
1827 Charles Robert Woods Brevet Major General (Union Army), died in 1885
1828 Johannes von Miquel German politician
1833 .‰lie Ducommun Switzerland, writer/pacifist (Nobel 1902)
1841 Felipe Pedrell composer
1843 Adelina Patti Madrid Spain, operatic coloratura (Lucia)
1859 Svante August Arhenius Swedish physicist/chemist (Nobel 1903)
1863 Augusto Bernardino Legu.a y Salcedo President of Per.º (1908, 1919)
1863 Emanuel Moor composer
1864 Aritius S Talma Dutch minister of Agriculture (Work Law of 1911)
1865 Adrian van Oordt Dutch writer (neo-romantic)
1865 Sven Hedin Sweden, scientist/explorer (Tibet)
1877 Else Berg German/Dutch painter
1877 Louis Fran.§ois-Marie Aubert French composer (Habanera)
1880 Arthur Shepherd composer
1881 Armin Knab German composer (Eichendorff-cycle)
1881 Evert Gorter founder of Dutch medical child care
1881 Paul Zech writer
1886 George Luther Foote composer
1889 Jos.© Eustasio Rivera Colombia, poet/novelist (Vortex)
1891 J C “Farmer” White cricketer (Somerset slow lefty 1909-37)
1893 Cedric Hardwicke Stourbridge England, actor (Peter Pan, Richard III)
1893 Pietro Pancrazi Italian critic (Scrittori d’Oggi)
1894 Herb Pennock hall of fame pitcher (Yankees, 243 career win)
1895 Louis Calhern New York NY, actor (Julius Caesar, Blackboard Jungle)
1898 Lauwrens Voorthuyzen [Lou de Palingboer], Dutch sect leader
19– Clay Anthony rocker (Junkyard-Blooze Hot Rod)
1900 Giorgos Seferis writer
1901 Cor[nelis RJ] Kieboom Dutch resistance fighter/chairman (Feyenoord)
1902 Nydia Westman New York NY, actress (Going My Way, Young Mr Bobbins)
1902 Hugo Haas Brno Czechoslovakia, actor/director (2 Smart People)
1902 John Bubbles Louisville KY, rhythm tap dancer (No Maps on My Taps)
1903 Kay Boyle St Paul MN, novelist (Plagued by Nightingales)
1904 Havank [HF vqan der Kallen], Dutch thriller writer (St Eustache)
1906 Grace Mary Williams composer
1906 Hendrik W C Spruit Dutch conductor
1909 Charlie Walker South Australia cricket wicket-keeper (toured but no Tests)
1911 Merle Oberon Calcutta India, actress (Assignment Foreign Legion)
1911 Nikola Hercigonja composer
1912 Adolf Rudnicki Polish writer (Niekochana)
1912 Peter Francis de Sautoy publisher
1912 Stan Kenton [Newcomb], Wichita KS, jazz musician/orchestra leader (Music 55)
1913 Alvin Derold Etler composer
1915 John Freeman British politician (Labour)/ambassador/TV host
1916 Eddie Arcaro jockey (1958 Racing Hall of Fame, 2 triple crowns)
1917 Carson McCullers US, novelist (Heart Is a Lonely Hunter)
1920 George Rose Bicester England, actor (Beacon Hill, Holocaust)
1920 Frances K Bairstow educator/labor relations consultant
1921 Andries Treurnicht [Dr No], founder (South Africa Conservative Party)
1921 Claude Rene Georges Pascal composer
1922 Beant Singh politician
1922 Josef Matej composer
1923 Donald Lybbert composer
1924 Lee Marvin New York NY, actor (Paint Your Wagon, Cat Ballou)
1924 Bruce Norris NHL owner (Detroit Red Wings)
1925 Jindrich Feld composer
1925 Leslie Laing Linstead Jamaica, 4X400 meter relayer (Olympics-gold-1952)
1926 Gyorgy Kurtag composer
1927 Rene Firino-Martell cognac manufacturer
1930 John Frankenheimer New York NY, director (Birdman of Alcatraz)
1932 Jean-Pierre Ponnele Paris France, opera director (Carmina Burana)
1932 Joseph P Kerwin Oak Park IL, Captain Med Corps USN/astronaut (Skylab 2)
1934 David Hugh Jones Poole Dorset England, director (Betrayal)
1934 Julian Belfrage theatre Agent
1936 Bob Engemann singer
1936 Ione Mylonas Shear archeologist
1937 Norman O’Neill cricketer (great Aussie bat of 60’s Brilliant field)
1938 Penny Zavichas LPGA golfer
1939 Gwen Taylor British actress (Life of Brian, Sob Sisters, Screaming)
1940 William “Smokey” Robinson Detroit MI, singer (& the Miracles-Being With You)
1940 Bobby Rogers US vocalist (Miracles-You Really Got a Hold on Me)
1940 Carlin Glynn US actress (Continental Divide)
1941 Carlos Roque Alsina composer
1941 Stephen Dobyns US author/poet (Cold Dog Soup)
1942 Kenneth R Kramer (Representative-R-CO, 1979- )
1943 “Mama” Cass Elliot actress (Mamas & Papas-Monday Monday)
1943 Lou Christie [Lugee Sacco], Pennsylvania, rock vocalist (Lightning Striking Again)
1944 Jan Bart Klaster mythologist (Slogan)
1945 Jon Whiteley actor (Moonfleet)
1945 Michael Nader actor (Dynasty, All My Children)
1945 Thomas Brasch writer
1946 Paul Dean rock guitarist/vocalist (Loverboy)
1946 Pierre van der Linden Dutch drummer (Brainbox)
1947 Peter Bird ocean rower
1948 Byron K Lichtenburg Stroudsburg PA, astronaut (STS 9, STS 45)
1948 Tony Iommi rock guitarist (Black Sabbath-Paranoid, Iron Man)
1948 Mark Andes Philadelphia PA, rock bassist (Spirit, Heart, Fireball)
1949 Edward Hardin New York NY, rocker (Spencer Davis Group)
1949 Ewa Aulin Stockholm, actress (Candy)
1950 Andy Powell rocker (Wishbone Ash)
1951 Stephen Nichols Cincinnati OH, actor (Witchboard, Days of our Lives)
1952 Rudolfo Neri-Vela Chilpancing Mexico, PhD/astronaut (STS 23)
1953 Bill Kirchenbauer actor/comedian (Coach-Just the 10 of Us)
1954 Frances Bucholz rocker (Scorpions-Wind of Change)
1954 Jamie West-Oram rock guitarist (Fixx)
1955 Margaux Hemingway Portland OR, actress (Lipstick, They Call Me Bruce)
1955 Jeff Daniels Chelsea MI, actor (Something Wild, Dumb & Dumber, Speed)
1956 George David Low Cleveland OH, astronaut (STS 32, STS 43)
1956 Dave Wakeling rock singer/guitarist
1956 Peter Holsapple rocker (Continental Drifters)
1956 Steve Randell Tasmanian cricket Test umpire (international panel)
1957 Dave “Smoke” Stewart Oakland CA, pitcher (Oakland Athletic)
1957 Falco [John Hoelcel], rock vocalist (Rock Me Amadeus)
1957 Paul Dean guitarist
1960 Holly Johnson England, rock vocalist (Frankie Goes To Hollywood)
1960 Keith Musa[kawukhathi] Zondi South Africa head (Inkatha Youth Brigade)
1960 Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward, of Britain/Duke of York
1960 Vicki Lynn Lasseter Iola KS, playmate (February 1981)
1962 Alvaro Espinoza Venezuela, baseball shortstop (New York Yankees, New York Mets)
1962 Hana Mandlikova Prague Czechoslovakia, tennis player (1985 US Open)
1963 Jessica Tuck New York NY, actress (Megan-One Life to Live)
1963 Seal English vocalist/songwriter (Killer, Crazy, Kiss by a Rose)
1964 Doug Aldrich rocker
1965 Andrew Jameson British swimmer
1965 John Commins cricketer (South African Test batsman vs New Zealand 1994-95)
1966 Justine Bateman Rye NY, actress (Mallory-Family Ties, Satisfaction)
1966 Prince Markie D [Mark Morale], rocker (Fat Boys-Jail House Rock)
1966 Matthew Ryan Port Jefferson NY, team handball circle (Olympics-1996)
1966 Paul Haarhuis Eindhoven Netherlands, tennis star (1994 US/Australian doubles)
1966 Peter Douris Toronto, NHL right wing (Anaheim Mighty Ducks)
1966 William White NFL safety (Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Falcons)
1967 Benicio Del Toro Puerto Rico, actor (Licence to Kill, Usual Suspects)
1967 Roel Liefden soccer player (Dordrecht ’90, FC Groningen)
1968 Frank Watkins US heavy metal bassist (Obituary, Cause of Death)
1968 Rob Dimaio Calgary, NHL right wing (Philadelphia Flyers)
1970 Garland Hawkins NFL defensive end (Chicago Bears)
1970 Ruwan Kalpage cricket off-spinner (Sri Lankan)
1971 Becca Lee Tennessee, Miss Tennessee-USA (1996-3rd)
1971 Becky Dyroen-Lancer San Jose CA, synchronized swimmer (Olympics-gold-96)
1971 Glyn Milburn NFL running back/kick returner (Den Broncos, Detroit Lions)
1971 Richard Green Australasia golfer
1971 Wally Williams NFL center/guard (Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens)
1971 William Henderson NFL running back (Green Bay Packers-Superbowl 31)
1972 Andrey Pchelyakov hockey forward (Team Kazakhstan Olympics-1998)
1973 Masafumi Kawaguchi WLAF linebacker (Amsterdam Admirals)
1973 Terrence Rencher NBA guard (Phoenix Suns)
1973 Tommy Bennett safety (Arizona Cardinals)
1974 Yevgeny Kafelnikov Sochi Russia, tennis star (1995 doubles-Hamburg)
1975 Paul Frey Boston MA, dance skater (& Ponte-1995 Eastern Jr champion)
1975 Raymond Graanoogst Suriname/Dutch soccer player (FC Utrecht)
1989 L A Baby orangutan at Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle WA

Deaths which occurred on February 19:

0197 D Clodius Septimus Albinus Roman bequest in England, dies in battle
1260 Boniface of Lausanne, Belgian bishop/saint, dies
1401 William Sawtree 1st English religious martyr, burned in London
1414 Thomas Arundel archbishop of Canterbury/chancellor of England, dies
1545 Pierre Brully [Peter Brulius], calvinist minister, burned to death
1553 Erasmus Reinhold German mathematician, dies at 41
1568 Miles Coverdale translator (1st complete English Bible), dies at 80
1605 Orazio Tiberio Vecchi composer, dies at 54
1620 Roemer P Visscher poet, buried in Amsterdam
1653 Luigi Rossi composer, dies
1785 Johann Christoph Richter composer, dies at 84
1790 Jean-Baptiste Krumphultz composer, dies at 47
1815 Leonhard von Call composer, dies at 47
1822 Jeronymo Francisco de Lima composer, dies at 78
1837 Georg B.¼chner German playwright (Leonce und Lena), dies at 23
1858 Alois Basil Nikolaus Tomasini composer, dies at 78
1864 William Edwin Baldwin US Confederate Brigadier-General, dies
1875 Jean B Vuillaume French violin maker (octobas), dies at 76
1878 Charles F Daubigny French restaurateur/painter, dies at 61
1887 Eduard Douwes Dekker Dutch writer (Max Havelaar), dies at 66
1892 Monty Bowden cricket Captain (England vs South Africa 1889), dies at 26
1894 Ernesto Camillo Sivori composer, dies at 78
1897 Karl T Weierstrass German mathematician, dies at 81
1915 Gopal Krishna Gokhale India’s social reformer/politician, dies
1916 Ernst Mach Austrian physicist/philosopher/psychologist, dies at 78
1923 Jeronimo Gimenez y Bellido composer, dies at 68
1927 Georg Brandes [Cohen], Danish literary-historian/critic, dies at 85
1927 Robert Fuchs composer, dies at 80
1933 Arnold Ludwig Mendelssohn composer, dies at 77
1941 Alexander Josiah Webbe English cricket keeper (v Australia 1879), dies
1941 Hamilton Hamilton Harty composer/conductor, dies at 61
1944 Siegfried Garibaldi Kallenberg composer, dies at 76
1945 Wim Speelman Dutch resistance fighter, executed at 26
1949 Auguste Jean Maria Charles Serieyx composer, dies at 83
1950 Edyth Walker US singer, dies at 82
1951 Andr.©[-Paul-Guillaume] Gide French writer (Nobel 1947), dies at 81
1952 Knut Hamsun writer, dies at 92
1952 Lawrence Grant actor (Bulldog Drummond), dies at 82
1962 Albert Israel Elkus composer, dies at 77
1965 Forrest Taylor actor (This is Life, Man Without a Gun), dies at 81
1965 Gheorge Gheorghiu Dej Romanian President , dies at 63
1967 Wilmer King 1st casuality on Tappan Zee Bridge New York, dies
1968 Ralph Dunn actor (Mr Rudge-Norby), dies at 65
1970 Ralph Edward Flanders (Senator-VT), dies at 89
1975 Luigi Dallapiccola Italian 12-tone composer, dies at 71
1980 Bon Scott Australian rock vocalist (AC/DC-Whole Lotta Rosie), dies at 33
1981 Frank Merrik composer, dies at 94
1983 Alice White actress (Employees’ Entrance), dies of a stroke at 78
1984 Ina Ray Hutton orchestra leader (Ina Ray Hutton Show), dies at 66
1985 Elizabeth Julesberg author (Dick & Jane), dies
1985 George Holmes actor (Man in the Trunk), dies at 66
1986 Paul Stewart actor (Top Secret USA, Deadline), dies at 77
1986 Adolfo Celi actor (Thunderball), dies at 63
1986 James O Eastland (Senator-D-MS), dies at 81
1989 Jaap van de Merwe Dutch journalist/cabareter (Hadjememaar), dies
1989 Merwe journalist/cabaret performer (Hadjememaar), dies
1990 Michael Powell English director (Life & Death of Colonel Blimp), dies at 84
1991 Peggy Mondo actress (Who’s Minding the Store), dies at 50
1992 Chet Leaming dies after brief illness at 66
1993 Gerhard Gesell judge (Pentagon Papers), dies of liver cancer at 82
1993 Michael Morrison actor (Caleb-As the World Turns), dies at 33
1994 Derek Jarman actor/director (Tempest), dies of AIDS at 52
1994 Georges Watin Algerian/French officer (OAS), dies at 71
1994 Renske Vellinga Dutch speed-skater, dies in auto-accident at 19
1995 Calder Willingham novelist/Scriptwriter, dies at 72
1995 Ian Ball photographer, dies at 80
1995 Shlomo Averbach Israeli ultra-orthodox rabbi, dies at 84
1996 Brenda Bruce actress (December Bride, Nightmare), dies at 77
1996 Charles O Finley baseball owner (Oakland A’s), dies at 76
1996 Grant Sawyer US politician, dies at 76
1996 Madhaviah Krishnan naturalist, dies at 83
1997 Deng Xiaoping head (Chinese Communist Party), dies at 92
1997 Leo Rosten writer/humorist (Joys of Yiddish), dies at 88
1997 Stanley Pearson footballer, dies at 76
1998 Grandpa Jones country comic/banjo wizard (Hee Haw), dies at 84

On this day…
0197 Lucius Septimius Severus’ army beats Clodius Albinus at Lyon
0356 Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples
0607 Boniface III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0842 Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of icons in the churches
1512 French troops under Gaston de Foix occupy Brescia
1537 Weavers of Leiden Netherlands strike
1539 Jews of Tyrnau Hungary (then Trnava Czechoslovakia), expelled
1574 Spanish troops plunder Krommenie, Wormerveer & Jisp Netherlands
1582 Francis of Valois becomes duke of Brabant
1619 Trial against Johan van Oldenbarnevelt begins in The Hague
1634 Battle at Smolensk Polish king Wladyslaw IV beats Russians
1674 Netherlands & England sign Peace of Westminster (NYC becomes English)
1700 Last day of the Julian calendar in Denmark
1736 George Frideric H.¤ndel’s “Alexander’s Feast” premieres
1797 1/3 of papal domain ceded to France
1803 Congress accepts Ohio’s constitution, statehood not ratified till 1953
1807 British squadron under Admiral Duckworth forces passage of Dardanelles
1807 Vice President Aaron Burr arrested in Alabama for treason; later found innocent
1825 Franz Grillparzer’s “K.¶nig Ottokars Gl.¼ck” premieres in Vienna
1831 1st practical US coal-burning locomotive makes 1st trial run, Pennsylvania
1846 Texas state government formally installed in Austin
1856 Tin-type camera patented by Hamilton Smith, Gambier OH
1859 Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity 1st time this defense is successfully used
1861 Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom
1864 Knights of Pythias form 1st lodge in Washington DC (12 members)
1869 US Assay Office in Boise ID authorized
1878 Thomas Alva Edison patents the gramophone (phonograph)
1881 Kansas becomes 1st state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages
1884 Tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky & Indiana kill 800 people
1900 British troops occupy Hlangwane Natal
1906 W K Kellogg & Charles D Bolin incorporate Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, Battle Creek MI
1910 English premiere of Richard Strauss’ “Elektra”
1913 1st prize inserted into a Cracker Jack box
1913 Mexican General V Huerta takes power with US support
1914 Riccardo Zandonai’s opera “Francesco da Rimini” premieres in Turin
1915 British fleet fire on Dardanellen coast
1919 Pan-African Congress, organized by W E B Du Bois (Paris)
1920 Netherlands joins League of Nations
1922 Ed Wynn becomes 1st talent to sign as a radio entertainer
1923 Jean Sibelius’ 6th Symphony, premieres
1923 Philip Barry’s “You & I” premieres in New York NY
1927 General strike against British occupiers in Shanghai
1928 Canadian hockey team wins 3rd consecutive gold medal
1928 2nd Winter Olympics games close at St Moritz, Switzerland
1929 Medical diathermy machine 1st used, Schenectady NY
1932 William Faulkner completes his novel “Light in August”
1933 Prussian minister G.¶ring bans all Catholic newspapers
1934 Bob & Dolores Hope marry
1934 US contract air mail service canceled, replaced by US army for 6 months
1935 Clifford Odets’ “Awake & Sing” premieres in New York NY
1936 Manuel Aza.±a becomes Spanish premier
1938 Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark
1941 Nazis raid Koco Amsterdam & round up 429 young Jews for deportation
1942 FDR orders detention & internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans
1942 New York Yankees announce 5,000 uniformed soldiers will be admitted free at each of their upcoming home games
1942 About 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin
1942 Bill Longson beats Managoff & Sandor Szabo, to become wrestling champion
1942 Dutch actors protest obligatory membership of Culture Chamber
1942 Japanese troop land on Timor
1942 Tommy Dorsey & his orchestra recorded “I’ll Take Tallulah”
1943 German tanks under Brigadier General Buelowius attack Kasserine Pass Tunesia
1944 823 British bombers attack Berlin
1944 U-264 sinks off Ireland
1945 900 Japanese soldiers reportedly killed by crocodiles in 2 days
1945 Brotherhood Day-1st celebrated
1945 US 5th Fleet (30,000 US Marines) launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese
1946 Giants outfielder Danny Gardella is 1st major leaguer to announce he is jumping to the “outlaw” Mexican League
1947 CBS radio premiere of Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasilieras No 3”
1949 “Inside USA” closes at Century Theater NYC after 339 performances
1949 1st Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Ezra Pound
1949 Mass arrests of communists in India
1952 French offensive at Hanoi
1953 Georgia approves US 1st literature censorship board
1953 Ted Williams safely crash-lands his damaged Panther jet
1953 William Inge’s “Picnic” premieres in New York NY
1954 WAST (now WNYT) TV channel 13 in Albany-Troy NY (NBC) 1st broadcast
1955 South East Asia Collective Defense Treaty goes into effect
1956 Kathy Cornelius wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open
1958 Carl Perkins leaves Sun Records for Columbia Records
1959 Gabon adopts its constitution
1959 USAF rocket-powered rail sled attains Mach 4.1 (4970 kph), New Mexico
1959 Britain, Turkey & Greece sign agreement granting Cyprus independence
1960 Bil Keane’s “Family Circus” cartoon strip debuts
1960 Protest strike in Poznan Poland
1961 Albania disavows Chinese “Revisionism”
1961 Henk van der Grift (Netherlands) becomes world champion all-around skater
1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 USSR informs JFK it’s withdrawing several thousand troops from Cuba
1963 Robert Frost wins Bollingen Prize
1964 UK flies Â½ ton of Beatle wigs to US
1965 NFL adds 6th official
1967 Stien Kaiser becomes world champion lady’s skater
1968 1st US Teachers strike (Florida)
1969 1st Test flight of Boeing 747 jumbo jet
1970 AL Cy Young winner Denny McLain suspended for book-making
1970 USSR launches Sputnik 52 & Molniya 1-13 communications satellite
1971 Paul McCartney releases “Another Day” in UK
1971 Walt Wesley becomes the 1st Cleveland Cavalier to score 50 points in a game
1972 Glenn Turner carries his bat for 223 vs West Indies at Kingston
1974 1st American Music Award
1976 Frente Polisario forms Democratic Republic of Sahara
1977 Shuttle Enterprise makes 1st test flight atop a 747 jetliner
1977 19th Grammy Awards This Masquerade, Starland Vocal Band
1977 A’s sell pitcher Paul Lindblad to the Rangers for $400,000
1977 Doug Walters scores 250 vs New Zealand, 217 stand for 7th wicket w/Gilmour
1977 Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” album released
1977 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1978 “On the 20th Century” opens at St James Theater NYC for 460 performances
1978 Brigitte Kraus runs world record 1000 meter indoor (2:34.8)
1978 Coleman, Comden & Green’s musical premieres in New York NY
1980 Botham a century & 13 wickets in Jubilee Test Cricket at Bombay
1980 Eric Heiden skates Olympics record 1000 meter in 1 15.18
1981 George Harrison is ordered to pay ABKCO Music $587,000 for “subconscious plagiarism” “My Sweet Lord” with “He’s So Fine”
1982 Sharie Langford, California, sets women’s bowling series record of 853
1982 Hanneke Jelgersma (Jagersma?) installed as Netherlands’ 1st Communist mayor
1982 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1983 Vladimir Salnikov (USSR) sets 400 meter freestyle swimming record
1983 Fernando Valenzuela wins his salary arbitration of $1 million
1984 1st brother combo to win Gold & Silver in same event at the Olympics (Phil & Steve Mahre-Slalom)
1984 “Doonesbury” closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 104 performances
1984 14th winter Olympics games close at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1985 150 killed when a Spanish jetliner crashed approaching Bilbao, Spain
1985 ADM of Amsterdam declares bankruptcy
1985 Canned & bottled Cherry Coke introduced by Coca-Cola
1985 Mickey Mouse welcomed in China
1985 William Schroeder is 1st artificial heart patient to leave hospital He spent 15 minutes outside Humana Hospital in Louisville KY
1986 US Senate ratifies UN’s anti-genocide convention 37 years later
1986 USSR launches Mir space station into Earth orbit
1986 Jordanian King Hussein severs ties with PLO
1987 Minnesota sheriff office arrest FBI most wanted, Thomas G Harrelson
1987 “Stardust” opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 102 performances
1987 Anti-smoking ad airs for 1st time on TV, featuring Yul Brynner
1987 Less than a month after re-signing, A’s pitcher Vida Blue retires
1987 Reagan lifts trade boycott against Poland
1988 Helga Arendt, Silke-Beate Knoll, Mechthild Kluth, Gisela Kinzel walk indoor female world record 4×200 meter (1:32.55)
1989 Broadway’s biggest flop (lost $5.3 million) “Legs Diamond” closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 64 performances
1989 Edgar Bowers wins Bollingen Prize
1990 Police kill 8 demonstrators for multi party system in Nepal
1990 Soyuz TM-9 lands
1992 Ken Ludwig’s musical “Crazy for You” premieres at the Shubert Theater in New York NY for 1622 performances
1992 Porn producer Jim Mitchell found guilty of killing his brother Artie
1993 Kenya Moore, 22, (Michigan), crowned 42nd Miss USA
1994 Marta Figueras-Dotti wins Cup o’ Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Golf Open
1995 1st broadcast of “Woman of Independent Means” on NBC-TV
1995 Irina Privalova runs indoor woman’s European record 200 meter (22.10 seconds)
1995 Kenneth Koch wins Bollingen Prize
1995 Linford Christie runs European record 60 meter indoor (6.47 seconds)
1995 Linford Christie runs world record 200 meter indoor (20.25 seconds)
1995 Michael Tippett’s “Rose Lake” premieres
1996 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in York PA on WQXA 105.7 FM
1997 FCC makes available 311 for non-emergency calls & 711 for hearing or speech-impaired emergency calls
1998 Soyuz TM-26 lands
1998 US hockey team destroys their rooms at Olympics village in Japan
0607 Boniface III begins his reign as Catholic Pope

Holidays

Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given “day of the week”

Ethiopia : Martyr’s Day (1930s)
Gabon : Constitution Day (1959)
World : Brotherhood Day (1934) – – – – – ( Sunday )
US : Presidents’ Day (formerly Washington’s Birthday)-legal holiday – – – – – ( Monday )

Religious Observances

Christian : Feast of St Conrad

Religious History

842 The Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ended, when a Council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of images (icons) in the churches. (This debate over icons is often considered the last event which led to the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.)
1568 Death of Miles Coverdale, 80, translator and publisher of the first complete Bible to be printed in English (1535). Coverdale was also editor of the Great Bible of 1539.
1812 Congregational missionaries Adoniram Judson, 23, and his wife Ann, 22, first sailed from New England to Calcutta, India. (Judson eventually concentrated his labors in Burma.)
1869 Death of Elizabeth Clephane, 39, an orphaned Scottish poet who left the Church with two hauntingly beautiful hymns: “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” and “The Ninety and Nine.” (All of Clephane’s poetry was published posthumously.)
1942 Presidential Executive Order 9066 began placing 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry (of which over 2/3 were American-born citizens) into ten “relocation centers” for the duration of WWII. During confinement within the armed, barbed-wire surroundings, however, prayer meetings, Bible studies and worship services were held.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Additional information supplied by the author. Contact via E-mail: William D. Blake. (pilgrimwb@aol.com)