BREAKING: Graham Potter announced as Chelsea new coach

Graham Potter

Chelsea FC on Thursday named Graham Potter a new manager after leaving Brighton to replace the sacked Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge.

Potter, 47, who earned widespread admiration for his work at Brighton, has agreed a five-year contract to take charge of the Premier League club, who praised his “progressive football and innovative coaching”.

He led Brighton to a ninth-place finish last season and took them up to fourth in the table this term, while demanding entertaining and tactically astute performances from his players.

Potter’s first game as Chelsea boss will be a derby at west London neighbours Fulham on Saturday.

“I am incredibly proud and excited to represent Chelsea FC, this fantastic football club,” said the Englishman.

“I am very excited to partner with Chelsea’s new ownership group and look forward to meeting and working with the exciting group of players and to develop a team and culture that our amazing fans can be proud of.

“I would also like to place my sincere thanks to Brighton and Hove Albion for allowing me this opportunity.”

Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly, who axed Tuchel just seven games into the new season, believes Potter will fit perfectly with his vision for the future at Stamford Bridge.

“We are thrilled to bring Graham to Chelsea. He is a proven coach and an innovator in the Premier League who fits our vision for the club,” Boehly said.

“Not only is he extremely talented on the pitch, he has skills and capabilities that extend beyond the pitch which will make Chelsea a more successful club.

“He has had a major impact at his previous clubs and we look forward to his positive impact at Chelsea.”

A Boehly-led consortium completed its takeover of the club earlier this year, bringing to an end Roman Abramovich’s reign.

AFP

BREAKING: PDP names Wabara BoT chairman

Senator Adolphus Wabara

Following the resignation of Walid Jibrin, the opposition People’s Democratic Party PDP, has appointed a former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, as the acting Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party.

He has also been named the Political Adviser of the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.

Wabara, who until his new appointment, was the Secretary of the PDP BoT, would be appointed to the presidential campaign council of the PDP.

A source disclosed that the decision was taken a few moments ago at the ongoing BoT meeting taking place in Abuja.

He also revealed that Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, will resign shortly as the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum.

Adeboye extols wife at 55th wedding anniversary

Pastor and Pastor (Mrs) Adeboye

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye has applauded his wife, Folu Adeboye for staying with him through thick and thin in the last 55 years of their union.

The revered cleric recollected that that pastor Folu Adeboye settled for marriage with despite being the least qualified among men seeking her hand in marriage 55 years ago.

The Christian leader on his verified Facebook page writes, “My darling @pastorfoluadeboye the woman who has suffered with me, she stood by me when we had nothing. I was the poorest and the least known of all the men after her 55yrs ago. But she left all those who were famous, well to do and she picked me.

“Thank God, God had made us a success and proven all the oppostions back then wrong. Here is to 55 more years of double love, double grace, double peace, double of heaven on earth. #PerfectJubilee #CoupleGoals #GodFreedUs”.

DSS combs terrorists’ negotiator's residence, office in Kaduna

Malam Tukur Mamu

Operatives of the Department of State Service in the early hours of Thursday raided the residence of Malam Tukur Mamu, the Publisher of Desert Herald based in Kaduna, who is also a Media Consultant to controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who withdrew as one of the negotiators between the terrorists that attacked the March 28 Abuja-Kaduna bound AK-9 train passengers.

A source familiar with the matter told The PUNCH correspondent that the heavily armed  DSS personnel stormed Mamu’s residence and the office of the Desert Herald Newspaper at about 12:30 am on Thursday.

It was gathered that the officers ransacked every nook and cranny of the house and carted away laptops, phones and documents, though the source revealed that nothing incriminating was found in both the residence and the office.

According to him, no fewer than 50 heavily armed operatives in Toyota Hilux, Toyota Highlander as well as military vehicles raided both the residence and office.

He added that the two wives of the ex-negotiator that were with him when he was arrested, were brought back to the house, but his two sons “are still with him in detention.”

He said, “The heavily armed operatives came and they searched everywhere both at the residence and his office but nothing suspicious was found during the operation that started at about 12.30am

“Over 50 of them came in, fully armed with sophisticated weapons in Army vehicles, Toyota Hilux, and Toyota Highlander.

“Two wives that were with him (Mamu) were returned but his two sons, Faisal and Ibrahim  are still with him in detention.”

The terrorists’ negotiator was said to have been arrested in Egypt alongside his family members, when he was on his way to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj when he was detained at the Cairo International Airport.

Nigerian Navy sets to halt oil bunkering in Akwa Ibom

Nigerian Navy on Parade

The Nigerian Navy Ship Jubilee, Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom State has reinstated its commitment to curbing illegal oil bunkering and reduce it to the barest minimum along the waterways.

The commander NNS, Jubilee, Commodore Semiu Olubode-Fazaz stated this on Wednesday while fielding question from newsmen after inaugurating a water project for Esene, a host community of NNS Jubilee, 

He disclosed that Operation ‘Dakatar Da Barawo’ has achieved tremendous success in the number of arrests and siezures of illegal smuggling across the state.

Olubode-Fazaz commended the community youth for cooperating with the Nigerian Navy to curb illegal bunkering in the state.

He described the inauguration of the project as one of the cherished tradition of giving back to the host community, adding that NN would continue to ensure that it host communities live in peace.

He said, “As you all know, illegal oil bunkering is an old criminality and we are the one fighting it. If you observed just recently, to further our efforts in combating the menace of illegal bunkering, NN launched launched Operation ‘Dakatar Da Barawo’. So far, without being immodest, the operation had gone a long way in curbing illegal bunkering in Akwa Ibom State.

“NN had seized quite a number of crude oil by these oil thieves and we have chased them out of their hideouts, where they vandalised federal government property to steal our oil.

“We will not be tired. We will keep on fighting illegal bunkering. We all know how this has affected our economy and of course, the development of Nigeria. NN as a service would continue to fight this illegality in our waterways.”

In his reactions, the head of the community, Eteidung Okon, who lauded Nigerian Navy for the inauguration of the Water project, assured them the protection of the project.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 08 SEPTEMBER, 1664; New Amsterdam changes to New York

Peter Stuyvesant

On this day in 1664, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Amsterdam, the capital of New Netherland, to an English naval squadron under Colonel Richard Nicolls. Stuyvesant had hoped to resist the English, but he was an unpopular ruler, and his Dutch subjects refused to rally around him. Following its capture, New Amsterdam’s name was changed to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, who organized the mission.

The colony of New Netherland was established by the Dutch West India Company in 1624 and grew to encompass all of present-day New York City and parts of Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey. A successful Dutch settlement in the colony grew up on the southern tip of Manhattan Island and was christened New Amsterdam.

To legitimatize Dutch claims to New Amsterdam, Dutch governor Peter Minuit formally purchased Manhattan from the local tribe from which it derives it name in 1626. According to legend, the Manhattans–Indians of Algonquian linguistic stock–agreed to give up the island in exchange for trinkets valued at only $24. However, as they were ignorant of European customs of property and contracts, it was not long before the Manhattans came into armed conflict with the expanding Dutch settlement at New Amsterdam. Beginning in 1641, a protracted war was fought between the colonists and the Manhattans, which resulted in the death of more than 1,000 Indians and settlers.

In 1664, New Amsterdam passed to English control, and English and Dutch settlers lived together peacefully. In 1673, there was a short interruption of English rule when the Netherlands temporary regained the settlement. In 1674, New York was returned to the English, and in 1686 it became the first city in the colonies to receive a royal charter. After the American Revolution, it became the first capital of the United States.

 

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 08 SEPTEMBER, 1943; Dwight Eisenhower announces Italian surrender

Dwight D. Eisenhower

On this day in 1943, an American General Dwight Eisenhower publicly announced the surrender of Italy to the Allies. Germany reacted with Operation Axis, the Allies with Operation Avalanche.

After Mussolini deposed from power and the earlier collapse of the fascist government in July, Gen. Pietro Badoglio, who had assumed power in Mussolini’s replacement by request of King Victor Emanuel, began negotiating with Gen. Eisenhower for weeks. Weeks later, Badoglio finally approved a conditional surrender, allowing the Allies to land in southern Italy and begin beating the Germans back up the peninsula. Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion of Italy, was given the go-ahead, and the next day would see Allied troops land in Salerno.

The Germans too snapped into action. Ever since Mussolini had begun to falter, Hitler had been making plans to invade Italy to keep the Allies from gaining a foothold that would situate them within easy reach of the German-occupied Balkans. On September 8, Hitler launched Operation Axis, the occupation of Italy. As German troops entered Rome, General Badoglio and the royal family fled Rome for southeastern Italy to set up a new antifascist government. Italian troops began surrendering to their former German allies; where they resisted, as had happened earlier in Greece, they were slaughtered (1,646 Italian soldiers were murdered by Germans on the Greek island of Cephalonia, and the 5,000 that finally surrendered were ultimately shot).

One of the goals of Operation Axis was to keep Italian navy vessels out of the hands of the Allies. When the Italian battleship Roma headed for an Allied-controlled port in North Africa, it was sunk by German bombers. In fact, the Roma had the dubious honor of becoming the first ship ever sunk by a radio-controlled guided missile. More than 1,500 crewmen drowned. The Germans also scrambled to move Allied POWs to labor camps in Germany in order to prevent their escape. In fact, many POWS did manage to escape before the German invasion, and several hundred volunteered to stay in Italy to fight alongside the Italian guerillas in the north.

The Italians may have surrendered, but their war was far from over.

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 08 SEPTEMBER, 1965; Filipino-American workers start Delano Grape Strike

National Farm Workers Association

On this day in 1965, the most important strike in American history, otherwise known as Delano Grape Strike began. Apart from over 2,000 Filipino-American farm workers refused to go to work picking grapes in the valley north of Bakersfield, California, they also set into motion a chain of events that would extend over the next five years.

Filipino and Mexican immigrants had worked for decades along the West Coast, moving with the seasons to harvest the region's crops. The Filipino contingent in particular was growing restless, as many of the workers were aging and anxious for decent medical care and retirement funds. When one of their number, labor organizer Larry Itliong, declared a strike on September 8, he asked for the support of the National Farm Workers Association and its Mexican-American founders, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Although Chavez had reservations about his union's capacity to pull off the strike, he put the issue to the workers, who enthusiastically joined.

The strike which lasted for five years, went through a number of phases. From the outset, the already poor farm workers faced opposition from law enforcement and cruel attempts at sabotage by the growers. Some reported that farmers shut off the water supply to their meager dormitories. As frustration grew and workers increasingly spoke of violence three years into the strike, Chavez decided to go on a hunger strike, emulating his hero Mahatma Gandhi. In addition to ending the calls for violence, the hunger strike drew further attention to the movement, earning praise from figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

The union, by then known as the United Farm Workers, also called for a boycott of table grapes. Individual households stopped buying grapes, and union workers in California dockyards let non-union grapes rot in port rather than load them. Eventually, the industry could take no more, and the growers came to the table. In July of 1970, most of the major growers in the Delano area agreed to pay grape pickers $1.80 an hour (plus 20 cents for each box picked), contribute to the union health plan, and ensure that their workers were protected against pesticides used in the fields.

"We said from the beginning that we were not going to abandon the fight, that we would stay with the struggle if lit took a lifetime, and we meant it," Chavez said of the grueling strike. "[Soon] all grapes will be sweet grapes again."

Author:

History.com Editors

“You are not in the media by mistake,” editor counsels journalists

Lekan Otufodunrin

Former Online Editor with The Nation Newspaper and  Convener of Journalists for Christ Fellowship, JCF, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, has tasked young and mid career journalists to always strive to put in their best for the career, saying they did not find themselves in journalism by mistake.

Mr. Otufodunrin who is also the Executive Director, ED, Media Career Development, gave this charge recently in Lagos during the August edition of Journalists for Christ Fellowship.

Speaking on the topic “What students and young journalists should know about media career,” the media guru told journalists not to be bothered about the negative stories people ascribe to the journalism profession.

Otufodurin who is also a former editor of The Nation on Sunday explained that why lots of persons see journalism profession as one that cannot pay bill or a profession with no breakthrough; journalism indeed pays the bills, and brings global recognition aside other benefits.

Sharing some of his experiences as a journalist, he told participants: “ You are not in the media by mistake. You may think you are, but the Almighty God who knew you before you were formed in your mother’s womb knows what you will be. God has a purpose for you in the media that you must fulfill. Whatever your hands find to do, do it with your heart. Even if you desire to move on to some other things, while you are a journalist, put in your best to learn what will be useful for you in other endeavours.

“You must be prayerfully and commit everything you do to God. It would be better if you have spiritual covering against the hazards of the job. Remember you are an ambassador for Christ in the profession. Let your light so shine that men will see your excellent work and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

Participants at the August edition of Journalist for Christ Fellowship

Excellence must be your watchword. You cannot afford to be associated with what is not excellent. You must have a mission statement and career plans with time-lines. You must be purpose-driven. There will be challenges like in other professions. There are miserable Doctors, frustrated bankers etc

“Take internship opportunities seriously and volunteer to get the necessary experience. There are ethics of the profession and higher Biblical commandments that should guide you. There are opportunities including training, conferences and awards. There are many top-flight non-mass communication graduates excelling in the profession.

“Don’t be scared about negative stories about the profession. You can succeed where others fail. Let God lead you in the career decisions you take. Don’t move without a go-ahead from God. Read widely, including about journalists you want to be like. Avoid career mistakes those ahead of you made,” Otufodurin counseled.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 06 SEPTEMBER, 1781; British General Arnold orders burning of New London

General Benedict Arnold

On this day in 1781, British Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, a former Patriot officer already infamous and much maligned for betraying the United States the previous year, adds to his notoriety by ordering his British command to burn New London, Connecticut.

The Continental Army had been using New London to store a large stash of military supplies, but only stationed Captain Adam Shapley and a contingent of 24 Continental soldiers there to protect it. General Arnold’s British soldiers, with help from the area’s Loyalists, quickly overwhelmed Captain Shapley and the Continentals, who had no other option but to retreat and leave New London and the military supplies unguarded.

After looting the town, Arnold ordered his British soldiers to set fire to every building, causing the equivalent of more than $500,000 in damages. Benedict Arnold was already despised throughout the colonies for his attempt to sell the Patriot fort at West Point, New York, to the British in 1780 for a bribe of £20,000. The burning of New London sealed his reputation as a public enemy and his name became a synonym in common American parlance for “traitor.” The bravery and military prowess Arnold had previously demonstrated on behalf of the Patriots at Ticonderoga and Quebec in 1775 have been completely overshadowed by his later actions against the country he had once so valiantly served.

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 06 SEPTEMBER, 1966; South African apartheid architect, Hendrik Verwoerd assassinated

 

Hendrik Verwoerd

On this day in 1966, a Mozambique immigrant who was also a messenger in the South African Parliament, Demetrio Tsafendas stabbed the South African Prime Minister and apartheid architect, Hendrik Verwoerd, to death during a parliamentary meeting in Cape Town. The assailant, Demetrio Tsafendas, was a mixed racial descent, partly Greek and partly Swazi.

Verwoerd, a South African politician, scholar of applied psychology and sociology, was also a minister of native affairs and later as South African leader. He oversaw the introduction and application of South Africa’s racist apartheid policies. As prime minister from 1958, he instituted an intricate system of racist laws separating whites, Africans (Blacks), Coloureds and Asians, and resettled Black people in backwater reservations. These policies provoked anti-apartheid demonstrations by Black people, which were brutally crushed by government forces at Sharpeville and elsewhere.

Demetrio Tsafendas

In April 1960, Verwoerd who miraculously survived being shot twice in the head by an English farmer, proclaimed that his survival was evidence of God’s approval of his work. During the next few years, Verwoerd’s government arrested anti-apartheid leaders such as Nelson Mandela and sentenced them to long prison terms on the basis of various convictions. He had succeeded in temporarily crushing anti-apartheid resistance, but he could not prevent a mentally ill parliamentary page from walking up to him in the Houses of Assembly and stabbing him to death on September 6, 1966.

Tsafendas, who apparently was not acting in protest of apartheid, was sent to a mental hospital near Johannesburg, where he lived until his death in 1999. Apartheid was abolished in South Africa in 1993.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 05 SEPTEMBER, 1914; World war I: General Joffre orders his troops to attack Germans

General Joseph Joffre

In the evening of 05 September, 1914, General Joseph Joffre, commander in chief of the French army during World War I, readies his troops for a renewed offensive against the advancing Germans at the Marne River in northeastern France, set to begin the following morning.

With the French 6th Army poised to begin an attack from its position against the right flank of the German 1st Army to the northeast of Paris, Joffre was under pressure from Paris’ military governor, General Joseph-Simon Gallieni, to launch a general offensive in support of the attack. On September 3, Joffre made the difficult decision to replace the commander of the 5th Army, General Charles Lanrezac, punishing him for his caution in ordering a retreat at the Battle of Charleroi on August 22-24—which had in fact saved the French left wing from envelopment by the Germans—and replacing him with the more aggressive General Louis Franchet d’Esperey.

The French planned for the 5th Army, having crossed the Marne River east of Paris with the Germans in hot pursuit, to launch a coordinated attack with the 6th Army on the two advancing German armies: the 1st, under General Alexander von Kluck, and the 2nd, led by General Karl von Bulow. To ensure the attack’s success, however, the French wanted the support of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under the command of Field Marshal Sir John French, who was still coordinating his army’s retreat after its defeat in the Battle of Mons, also on August 24.

At ten o’clock on the night of September 4, Joffre signed the order authorizing the 6th Army’s attack. By the next morning, however, he was still uncertain about the commitment of the British troops. At a meeting later that afternoon, in French’s headquarters, Joffre pleaded with his British counterpart to authorize his troops to join in the attack, promising that the BEF would be supported on either side by the French 5th and 6th Armies. The “supreme moment” had arrived, Joffre insisted, and “the future of Europe” was on the line. “I cannot believe the British Army will refuse to do its share in this supreme crisis….The honor of England is at stake!” After struggling to answer in French, a visibly emotional British commander in chief gave up, reportedly exclaiming to one of his officers: “Damn it, I can’t explain. Tell him that all that men can do, our fellows will do.”

That night, Joffre signed the order proclaiming the attack at the Marne, to be read to his troops the next morning: “At the moment when the battle upon which hangs the fate of France is about to begin, all must remember that the time for looking back is past; every effort must be concentrated on attacking and throwing the enemy back….Under present conditions no weakness can be tolerated.” The decisive four-day-long Battle of the Marne would end in an Allied victory, halting the month-long German advance and sparking a growing recognition on both sides that the war would go on longer than either had anticipated.

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 05 SEPTEMBER, 1975; Gerald Ford escapes assassination attempt in California

President Gerald R. Ford

On this day in 1975, the 38th American President, Gerald R. Ford survived assassination attempt by a 26 year-old petite and red haired Lynette Fromme, on his life in Sacramento, California.

Fromme approached the president while he was walking near the California Capitol and raised a 45 caliber handgun toward him. But Secret Service agents grabbed and wrestled her to the ground before she was able to fire off a shot. After Fromme’s assassination attempt, Ford stoically continued on to the Capitol to speak before the California legislature. The main topic of his speech was crime.

Seventeen days later, 45 years old Sara Jane Moore, a mentally derailed female accountant, tried to assassinate Ford while he was in San Francisco. Her attempt was thwarted by a bystander who instinctively grabbed Moore’s arm when she raised the gun. Although she fired one shot, it did not find its target. The bystander, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran named Oliver Sipple, was publicly thanked by Ford three days later.

Lynette Fromme

Lynette Fromme, nicknamed “Squeaky,” was a member of the notorious Charles Manson family, a group of drug-addled groupies who followed cult leader Manson. Manson and other members of his “family” were convicted and sentenced to prison for murdering former actress Sharon Tate and others in 1969. Subsequently, Fromme and other female members of the cult started an order of “nuns” within a new group called the International People’s Court of Retribution. This group terrorized corporate executives who headed environmentally destructive businesses. Fromme herself was still so enamored of Manson that she devised the plot to kill President Ford in order to win Manson’s approval.

Sara Jane Moore

Fromme was convicted of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in prison in West Virginia. She escaped in 1979, but was caught within 25 miles of the prison. Strangely, Ford’s second would-be assassin, Moore, was imprisoned in the same facility and escaped in 1989. She turned herself in two days later and, like Fromme, was transferred to a higher-security penitentiary. While Moore was released on parole in 2007; Fromme was also released in 2009. 

TODAY IN HISTORY: 05 SEPTEMBER, 1836; Sam Houston emerges victorious in Texas first presidential election

Sam Houston

On 05 September, 1836, the war hero, Sam Houston was elected first president of the newly Republic of Texas, which earned its independence from Mexico in a successful military rebellion.

Houston who was born in Virginia on 02 March 1793, moved with his family to rural Tennessee after the death of  father in 1807. As a teenager, Houston ran away and lived for several years with the Cherokee tribe. He joined the U.S.  Army to fight against Britain in the 1812 war.  Houston who served under Andrew Jackson in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, suffered three near fatal wounds on 26 March, 1814 and carried fragments of the musket ball that lodged in his right shoulder until his death.

Having served in the War of 1812 and an interlude of study and teaching, in 1817 Houston was appointed a U.S. subagent assigned to manage the removal of the Cherokee from Tennessee to a reservation in the Arkansas Territory. Sam Houston practiced law in Nashville where he was a senior partner at the Scott, Clawater & Houston, L.L.P and from 1823 to 1827 served as a U.S. congressman before being elected governor of Tennessee in 1827.

A brief, failed marriage led Houston to resign from office and live again with the Cherokee. Officially adopted by the tribe, he traveled to Washington to protest governmental treatment of Native Americans. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson sent him to Texas (then a Mexican province) to negotiate treaties with local Native Americans for protection of border traders. Houston arrived in Texas during a time of rising tensions between U.S. settlers and Mexican authorities, and soon emerged as a leader among the settlers. In 1835, Texans formed a provisional government, which issued a declaration of independence from Mexico the following year. At that time, Houston was appointed military commander of the Texas army.

Though the rebellion suffered a crushing blow at the Alamo in early 1836, Houston was soon able to turn his army’s fortunes around. On April 21, he led some 800 Texans in a surprise defeat of 1,500 Mexican soldiers under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the San Jacinto River. Santa Anna was captured and brought to Houston, where he was forced to sign an armistice that would grant Texas its freedom. After receiving medical treatment for his war wounds in New Orleans, Houston returned to win election as president of the Republic of Texas on September 5. In victory, Houston declared that “Texas will again lift its head and stand among the nations….It ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages.”

Houston served as the republic’s president until 1838, then again from 1841 to 1844. Despite plans for retirement, Houston helped Texas win admission to the United States in 1845 and was elected as one of the state’s first two senators. He served three terms in the Senate and ran successfully for Texas’ governorship in 1859. As the Civil War loomed, Houston argued unsuccessfully against secession, and was deposed from office in March 1861 after refusing to swear allegiance to the Confederacy. He died of pneumonia on 26 July, 1863 at age of 70 years.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 04 SEPTEMBER, 2014; Joan Rivers dies at 81

Joan Rivers

A sharp-tongued performer and comedy legend, Joan Rivers died on this day in 2014 at the age of 81 in a New York City hospital one week after she went into cardiac arrest while undergoing a medical procedure on her vocal cords at a Manhattan clinic. Rivers, who was one of the best known comedians of her era, during a showbiz career that spanned more than five decades, blazed a trail for women in stand-up comedy  and turned ‘Can we talk? ‘into a national catchphrase.  The irreverent Rivers, who poked fun at her personal life and affinity for plastic surgery, skewered Hollywood celebrities where she once said, “I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.”

Born on the 8th of June, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian immigrants, Rivers with birth name Joan Molinsky, attended the Adelphi academy in Brooklyn, and, an excellent student, was Phi Beta Kappa at Barnard College, from which she graduated with a degree in English in 1954. Interested in becoming an actress, she scored parts in Off-Broadway plays and worked office temp jobs to support herself. In the late 1950s, she started performing stand-up comedy in nightclubs as a means to earn money; at the time, there were few other female stand-up comics. In the early 1960s, she did a stint with the Chicago-based Second City comedy troupe. Along the way, at the suggestion of an agent, she changed her last name to Rivers. In 1965, her career took off after she made her first appearance on “The Tonight Show,” hosted by Johnny Carson, who told her she was going to be a star. Rivers went on to rack up numerous guest spots on the program, while also appearing on other TV comedy shows and doing her stand-up act around the country.

In 1983, Rivers was tapped as the permanent guest host on “The Tonight Show.” Three years later, she inked a deal for her own late-night TV show on another network. Afterward, Carson, who reportedly felt betrayed, never spoke to Rivers again (she was blacklisted from “The Tonight Show” until 2014, when host Jimmy Fallon invited her on as a guest). “The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers” debuted in October 1986 but soon sank in the ratings, and Rivers was fired in May 1987. That August, Rivers’ husband, Edgar Rosenberg, who served as a producer of her show, committed suicide.

Rivers’ career temporarily stalled but she eventually signed on to host her own daytime talk show, “The Joan Rivers Show,” which aired from 1989 to 1993. Next, the raspy-voiced comedian added fashion maven to her resume and helped revolutionize red-carpet coverage and popularize the question “Who are you wearing?,” after she and her daughter, Melissa, began hosting E! Entertainment’s pre-award shows for the Golden Globes, Academy Awards and other events, starting in the mid-1990s. From 2010 until her death, Rivers was a co-host of the TV program “Fashion Police,” on which she cattily critiqued the style choices of celebrities. Rivers also published a dozen books during her career, produced a jewelry line for TV shopping channel QVC and supported a variety of charitable causes. After starting out in the 1950s with dreams of working in theater, she earned a Tony Award nomination in the best actress category in 1994 for her role in the Broadway play “Sally Marr…and her escorts,” which she co-wrote.

Rivers gave what turned out to be her last stand-up performance, in Manhattan, on August 27, 2014, the night before the medical procedure that led to her death on September 4. Three days later, the legendary funny woman was memorialized at a star-studded service in New York City. As Rivers had noted in her 2012 book “I Hate Everyone … Starting With Me,” she wanted a send-off that was “a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action."

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 04 SEPTEMBER, 1886; General Nelson Miles accepts Geronimo’s surrender

Apache Geronimo

On 04 September, 1886, Geronimo surrendered to U.S. government troops and he became the last Native American warrior to formally surrender to U.S. forces which also signaled the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest. For 30 years, the Native American warrior, Apache Geronimo had battled to protect his tribe’s homeland; however, by 1886 the Apaches were exhausted and outnumbered.

Born in 1829 and grew up in the present day Arizona and Mexico, Geronimo's tribe, the Chiricahua Apaches, clashed with non-Native settlers trying to take their land. In 1858, Geronimo’s family was murdered by Mexicans. Geronimo later led raids against Mexican and American settlers to Seek revenge for the gruesome murder of his family by Mexicans. In 1874, the U.S. government moved Geronimo and his people from their land to a reservation in east-central Arizona. Conditions on the reservation were restrictive and harsh and Geronimo and some of his followers escaped. 

For more than one decade, Geronimo and his people battled American troops and launched raids on white settlements. During this time, Geronimo and his supporters were forced back onto the reservation several times. In May 1885, Geronimo and approximately 150 followers fled one last time. They were pursued into Mexico by 5,000 U.S. troops. In March 1886, General George Crook (1829–90) forced Geronimo to surrender; however, Geronimo quickly escaped and continued his raids. General Nelson Miles (1839–1925) then took over the pursuit of Geronimo, eventually forcing him to surrender that September near Fort Bowie along the Arizona-New Mexico border. 

Geronimo and a band of Apaches were sent to Florida and then Alabama, eventually ending up at the Comanche and Kiowa reservation near Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory. There, Geronimo became a successful farmer and converted to Christianity. He participated in President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in 1905. The Apache leader dictated his autobiography, published in 1906 as Geronimo’s Story of His Life.  He died on 17 February, 1909 at Fort Sill at a ripe age of 80 years.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 03 SEPTEMBER, 1783; American revolution ends with signing of Treaty of Paris

 

Representatives of countries that signed the Treaty of Paris at the Hotel d'York in 1783.

The signing of Treaty of Paris this day in 1783 officially ended the American Revolution. The treaty signed by Franklin, Adams and Jay at the Hotel d'York in Paris, signified America’s status as a free nation and Britain formally recognized the independence of its 13 former American colonies, and the boundaries of the new republic were agreed upon: Florida north to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River.

The events that led to the treaty was dated back to April 1775, on a common green in Lexington, Massachusetts, when American colonists answered King George III’s refusal to grant them political and economic reform with armed revolution. On July 4, 1776, more than a year after the first volleys of the war were fired, the Second Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence. Five difficult years later, in October 1781, British General Charles Lord Cornwallis surrendered to American and French forces at Yorktown, Virginia, bringing to an end the last major battle of the Revolution.

In September 1782, Benjamin Franklin, along with John Adams and John Jay, began official peace negotiations with the British. The Continental Congress had originally named a five-person committee; including Franklin, Adams and Jay, along with Thomas Jefferson and Henry Laurens to handle the talks. However, both Jefferson and Laurens missed the sessions and Jefferson had travel delays and Laurens had been captured by the British and was being held in the Tower of London. The U.S. delegation, which was distrustful of the French, opted to negotiate separately with the British.

During the talks Franklin demanded that Britain hand over Canada to the United States. This did not come to pass, but America did gain enough new territory south of the Canadian border to double its size. The United States also successfully negotiated for important fishing rights in Canadian waters and agreed among other things, not to prevent British creditors from attempting to recover debts owed to them. Two months later, the key details had been hammered out and on November 30, 1782, the United States and Britain signed the preliminary articles of the treaty. France signed its own preliminary peace agreement with Britain on January 20, 1783, and then in September of that year, the final treaty was signed by all three nations and Spain. The Treaty of Paris was ratified by the Continental Congress on January 14, 1784.

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HistoryEditors.com

TODAY IN HISTORY: 01 SEPTEMBER, 2001; U.S. issues first American postage stamp to celebrate Muslim holidays

American stamp celebrating Muslims holidays

After five years of lobbying by the American Muslims, the U.S. Postal Service releases the first American stamp celebrating Muslim holidays on the first day of September, 2001. A blue stamp featuring gold calligraphy was released to celebrate Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, along with the English words “EID GREETINGS,” the stamp is included alongside stamps celebrating other religious holidays, a victory for Muslim representation in America.

Over the years, many American Muslims had pushed for the creation of a holiday stamp of their own, arguing that their two holiest days (Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan fasting, while Eid al-Adha marks the culmination of the haj) deserved the same level of recognition as Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. After a letter-writing campaign in which over 5,000 Muslim children sent messages to the Postmaster General, the Postal Service finally announced the new stamp designed by Calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya in August 2001 and it was released as part of the Postal Service's “Holiday Celebration Series.”

The Eid stamp would receive unwelcome attention, due largely to the 9/11 attacks which took place just ten days after its release. In the wake of the attacks and the subsequent wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, activists lobbied to make the stamp permanent, symbolizing the right of American Muslims to live peacefully and on equal footing with their fellow Americans. The stamp was reissued in October of 2001 and many times after that—its re-issuing in 2009 sparked rumors among right-wing reactionaries that new President Barack Obama, whom many falsely believed to be Muslim, had ordered its creation. Despite the unfortunate coincidence of its original release, the stamp is a mainstay of the U.S. Postal Service's holiday series, and an updated version is currently available as a Forever stamp.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 01 SEPTEMBER, 1969; Qaddafi overthrows King Idris I of Libya in a bloodless coup

Muammar al-Qaddafi

On the first day of September, 1969, a 27-year old Libyan army captain, Muammar al-Qaddafi, led a successful military coup against King Idris I of Libya. Idris was dethroned and Qaddafi was named chairman of Libya’s new governing body, the Revolutionary Command Council.

Born in a tent in the Libyan desert in 1942 to a Bedouin farmer, Qaddafi was a gifted student, graduated from the University of Libya in 1963 and the Libyan military academy at Banghazi in 1965. The perfervid Arab nationalist plotted with a group of fellow officers to overthrow King Idris, who was viewed as overly conservative and indifferent to the movement for greater political unity among Arab countries. By the time Qaddafi attained the rank of captain, in 1969, the revolutionaries were ready to strike. They waited until King Idris was out of the country, who went for a leg ailment at a Turkish spa, and then toppled his government in a bloodless coup. The monarchy was abolished, and Idris traveled from Turkey to Greece before finding asylum in Egypt. He died there in Cairo in 1983.

Blending Islamic orthodoxy, revolutionary socialism and Arab nationalism, Qaddafi established a fervently anti-Western dictatorship in Libya. In 1970, he removed U.S. and British military bases and expelled Italian and Jewish Libyans. In 1973, he took control of foreign-owned oil fields. He reinstated traditional Islamic laws, such as prohibition of alcoholic beverages and gambling, but liberated women and launched social programmes that enhanced the standard of living in Libya. As part of his stated ambition to unite the Arab world, he sought closer relations with his Arab neighbors, especially Egypt. However, when Egypt and then other Arab nations began a peace process with Israel, Libya became increasingly isolated.

Qaddafi’s government financed a wide variety of terrorist groups worldwide, from Palestinian guerrillas and Philippine Muslim rebels to the Irish Republican Army. During the 1980s, the West blamed him for numerous terrorist attacks in Europe, and in April 1986 U.S. war planes bombed Tripoli in retaliation for a bombing of a West German dance hall. Qaddafi was reportedly injured and his infant daughter killed in the U.S. attack.

In the late 1990s, Qaddafi sought to lead Libya out of its long international isolation by turning over to the West two suspects wanted for the 1988 explosion of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. In response, the United Nations lifted sanctions against Libya. The United States removed its own embargo in September 2004. After years of rejection in the Arab world, Qaddafi also sought to forge stronger relations with non-Islamic African nations such as South Africa, remodeling himself as an elder African statesman.

In February 2011, as unrest spread through much of the Arab world, massive political protests against the Qaddafi regime sparked a civil war between revolutionaries and loyalists. In March, an international coalition began conducting airstrikes against Qaddafi strongholds under the auspices of a U.N. Security Council resolution. On October 20, Libya’s interim government announced that Qaddafi had died after being captured near his hometown of Sirte.

Author:

History.com Editors

Hogan polygraph offers free lie detector test to presidential candidates

Ahead of 2023 general election, a Nigeria’s premier polygraph company, Hogan Polygraph & Investigations Limited, has set to offer a free lie detector test to all presidential and gubernatorial candidates.

Speaking at a press briefing during the week, the Group CEO of Hogan Organization, Paul Ibirogba emphasized that the company will provide the service as a means to ensure that Nigerian populace elects the most honest and ethical leaders in 2023.

Ibirogba who noted that Nigerians are increasingly demanding greater accountability, transparency and integrity from politicians, added that a polygraph could help the electorate discern the leaders who have the nation’s best interest at heart.

He revealed that political candidates who agree to a free lie detector test would be required to sign a waiver allowing the test results to be released to the public.

“Companies across this nation are utilizing polygraph examinations as a tool to eliminate applicants with a fraudulent history in order to protect their revenue from embezzlement and to verify employment history; the same can be done so that the Nigerian public chooses the best political candidates,” Ibirogba said.

Hogan Polygraph made entertainment headlines last year after performing a lie detector test on Nigerian reality TV star Michael Ilesanmi of 90 Day Fiance while on air during a tell-all show for the cast of the United States hit TV show, which is viewed by millions of Americans as well as a global audience.